The Truth Shall Set You Free
by ellabelle12
Summary: Secrets and lies tear a family apart. Can the truth set them all free? Set in 1995 and centered around Erica, with Dimitri, Jack, Edmund, Maria, Kendall, Anton, Corvina, and Tad.
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: This takes place in 1995. Dimitri and Erica remarried on New Year's Eve 1994 as they did on the show. Anton is still married to Kendall and living at Wildwind and neither is aware of his parentage. This is an Erica-centered story that will involve Dimitri, Jack, Edmund, Maria, Kendall, Anton, Corvina, Tad and others. _

Chapter 1

"Good morning! How are my two favorite people?" Dimitri Marick asked as he let himself into his wife's hospital room.

Erica Kane lifted her head from the pillow where she was reclining and smiled a tired smile. "We're fine. Where did you go? You weren't here when I woke up."

"I know, and I'm sorry," He apologized. "I had to make some business calls, and I wanted to get a present for you both."

He held up a gift bag and made his way to her bed. He leaned in and kissed her quickly on the lips and then bent further to press a gentle kiss on the head of the newborn baby asleep in her arms.

"What did I miss?" He asked as he pulled up a chair beside the hospital bed.

"Sleep. That's about it," She said.

"You or the baby?" He asked.

"The baby."

"You need some rest too darling. You've been through an exhausting ordeal," He reminded her.

"I know. I just…it's hard for me to believe this is really happening."

He laughed. "You'd think almost 30 hours of labor would be enough to convince you that it's real!"

"I don't mean that." She smiled down at the baby. "It just still feels so surreal – having another child."

"It's amazing. Miraculous even. YOU are amazing," He said. He stood up then and leaned in to kiss her again.

He pulled back enough to watch her offer him a nervous smile and then look down again at the baby.

Dimitri was a bit unnerved himself. Sure, she was doing and saying everything he expected a new mother to do and say, but she just seemed… off somehow. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but there was something not quite right with Erica. She seemed incredibly hesitant to let the baby go, even drifting off to sleep during the night with their unnamed daughter in her arms. She seemed to study the baby intently, asking him on more than one occasion, each time with a slight frown on her face who he thought the baby looked like.

It hit Dimitri then - HE had been thrilled with the birth of their daughter, but Erica had spoken repeatedly during the pregnancy about her desire for a son. Of course it made sense that she was feeling overwhelming and dealing with some disappointment.

"Erica? Are you okay? I mean, with the baby being a girl. I know you had your heart set on a little boy," he asked hesitantly.

She looked up at him in surprise. "Oh of course I'm okay with it. Look at her Dimitri – she's beautiful! She's just absolutely perfect. I mean, aside from Bianca I've never loved anyone this much!"

He grinned at her in relief then. "Of course she's beautiful – look at her mother!"

She smiled back at him, and her smile seemed more genuine this time. She was just exhausted from an incredibly arduous birth, and neither one of them had gotten much sleep last night, he told himself. She'd relax after they'd been home for a while with their new daughter.

"You said you brought me something?" She asked.

"Yes, yes I did," He smiled at her and held up the gift bag. "Something for you and something for our daughter."

"I'm short on hands," She said apologetically, clearly not willing to hand over the baby.

Dimitri sighed. "Okay, but you can't hog her forever. Eventually you have to hand her over. I am her father after all."

Erica watched as he reached into the bag and pulled out a small box.

"I wanted you to have something special, to commemorate our daughter's birth," He said as he opened the box. A large deep blue sapphire pendant was nestled inside. The large oval-cut gem was surrounded by smaller diamond, all set in platinum.

Erica gasped at the necklace. "Oh Dimitri! It's… it's too much."

"Nonsense. There's no such thing," he said as he carefully lifted the necklace out of the box. "I didn't get to raise Anton. I can't even claim him as my son. I think in a way that makes our daughter that much more special, that much more precious to me."

Erica looked down at the baby and then back at Dimitri and the necklace in his hand.

"Let me put this on you."

She leaned forward in the bed, careful not to disturb the baby, and waited patiently for Dimitri to fasten the clasp around her neck.

"There. Perfect. Almost as beautiful as the two of you," He said with a smile.

Erica's hand trembled as she fingered the necklace. "It's overwhelming," She said softly.

"Darling, the last 24 hours have been the most amazing of my entire life. I want to cherish this always, and I want you to have this necklace, with our daughter's birthstone, as a symbol of my love for you, and for her."

"I love it."

"And I love you," He replied with a smile before he kissed her again.

"What else is in the bag?" She asked out of curiosity.

"I give the woman a giant sapphire, and she asks 'what else!'" He teased. Erica waited patiently while he laid out an exquisite baby outfit: a soft pale pink knit one piece sleeper with tiny rosebuds embroidered around the neckline.

"And I know that every woman needs the right accessories, so I made sure to get her a matching hat," He said as he laid the items on the bed beside her.

"It's beautiful," She said softly.

"Well, I can't let the future Countess Andrassy go home from the hospital in just anything!" He said proudly. "Besides, I know how much Bianca loves pink, so I figured I might as well just accept that I'm going to be surrounded by pink for the next 20 years or so."

Erica reached out and touched the baby outfit gingerly. "It's divine. Is that cashmere?" She asked in surprise.

"Yes. Only the best for my girl," He said.

"Darling, it's lovely, but it's… I know you didn't get an opportunity to raise Anton so you don't know what babies are like, but this is… well, it's not very practical."

"What's wrong with it?" He asked in concern.

Erica looked amused now. "Babies spit up, and they have dirty diapers."

He shrugged. "I don't care. She can have an entire wardrobe of cashmere sweaters if she wants. Anything she wants."

She raised an eyebrow. "You're going to regret that."

Dimitri gazed up at his wife.

"Never. Where you and our daughter are concerned, there's no such thing as regret."


	2. Chapter 2

"Let me put the hat on her now," He offered.

Erica watched in silence as Dimitri slipped the soft pink cashmere hat over the baby's head. She had just the tiniest bit of peach fuzz on her otherwise bald head.

"I don't want her head to get cold. Poor thing doesn't have any hair," He said.

Erica nuzzled the baby closer. "Don't listen to him. He has a receding hairline. He has no right to talk about your hair my darling."

Dimitri laughed at that. "Now you're attacking my hair? Come on Erica! I was just teasing. Admit it – you thought she'd have a head full of dark hair too!"

"Well, my mother, you know, my mother had light hair. You only knew her when she was older and it had all turned white, but my mother had blonde hair as a child, and it got a bit darker as she grew up. She was bald as a baby too," Erica insisted.

"Alright, alright. I will admit to being wrong. Mona DID have hair on her head when I met her, so I assume our daughter will too," He said as he leaned in to stroke the baby's tiny hand. "We'll have to look for some of Mona's baby pictures and compare them to our girl. Maybe that's who she looks like."

He was so focused on their new daughter that he almost missed the soft sob.

"Erica?"

He glanced up at his wife and realized that she was trying – and failing – to choke back tears.

"I'm sorry," She whispered. "My mother would have adored this baby, and I…I miss her so much Dimitri. I wish she was here to see her and hold her."

"Oh Erica," He sighed. "I know. I miss her too." He slid over onto the bed beside his wife and wrapped a supportive arm around her.

"I think Mona is probably looking down on us right now, and I bet she's head over heels in love with this little girl already," He offered.

Erica let go of the baby with one hand to wipe her eyes.

"Do think so?" She asked.

"Absolutely," He promised. "In fact, I bet right now, she's looking down at us and wondering why in the heck her new granddaughter doesn't have a name!"

"That again," Erica sighed.

"Yes, that again!" He laughed. "You know, they won't let us leave with her until she has a name."

"That's not true," She said obstinately. "They can't hold us here against our will."

"Come on, Erica. We've gone over name lists. We've got to be able to agree on something," He said.

"Dimitri, I'm not giving her an overly Russian or Hungarian name," She said.

"It's part of her heritage!" He responded indignantly.

"I don't care," Erica replied. "She'll never learn how to spell Evgeniya, and neither will anyone else."

"My beloved Aunt's name is Evgeniya."

"I don't care."

He threw his hands up in the air.

"Okay then. I give up. I'm back to the default we'd discussed during pregnancy: Mona Marick," He said. "You know, if you'd been willing to find out the gender, we could have had a name picked for months already."

"I think Mona is lovely," She said. He watched as she bit her bottom lip for a moment and studied the baby. "But I don't know how I feel about calling her Mona. I mean, no one could possibly replace my mother. Naming her Mona in my mother's honor feels right, but calling her Mona? I don't know."

Dimitri pulled a slip of paper from his pocket and reviewed all of the names written on it again. They'd gone round and round over names for months and managed to narrow it down to a short list, but they'd been unable to agree on anything beyond that.

"What if we take Mona and pair it with a name that at least has some reflection of my heritage but isn't too unusual?" He asked.

"What did you have in mind?" She asked.

"Mona Alexandra. I understand if you don't want to call her Mona, but I like the idea of honoring your mother that way, and Alexandra was my grandmother's name. So we can call her Alexandra, or Alex if you like," He offered.

Erica wrinkled her nose. "I don't like Alex at all," She said, "I'm not sure how I feel about Alexandra."

"How about Sasha?" He asked.

"Sasha?"

"Sure. It's a Russian nickname for Alexander or Alexandra. It crosses genders, but I like it for a girl. Mona Alexandra Marick, and we'll call her Sasha. What do you say?"

Erica looked down at the baby again.

"Sasha Marick," She repeated softly.

When she looked up at Dimitri again, she was smiling brightly.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Welcome home!"

When the arrived at Wildwind, Erica was surprised to see Edmund, Maria, Peggy and the rest of the staff waiting for them in the parlor. Bouquets of pink roses flanked the fireplace and adorned the tables, and an elegant white bassinet, draped in white silk and adorned with a large pale pink bow stood in the middle of the room.

"Oh it's beautiful! You didn't have to do all of this!" Erica exclaimed.

"Hey, gotta have a proper homecoming for the little princess," Edmund teased his brother. "Let me see her."

Erica watched as Dimitri placed the baby's infant carrier on the table and carefully removed their daughter.

"Dimi, she's a beauty, that's for sure," Peggy trilled as she pushed past Edmund to get a look at her long-time charge's new baby. "May I?" She asked, holding her hands out for the baby.

Erica nodded to Dimitri, who passed the baby to Peggy.

"Come sit down, darling. You shouldn't overdo it," Dimitri said as he steered Erica to the sofa.

"So bro, what's her name? You wouldn't tell us before. Out with it," Edmund said as he leaned over Peggy's shoulder to check out his new niece.

Dimitri sat down beside Erica and put a supportive arm around her. She leaned into him and smiled as everyone fussed over the baby.

"We would like to officially introduce our daughter: Mona Alexandra Marick, Sasha for short," He said proudly. "Mona in honor of Erica's mother, and Alexandra in honor of my maternal grandmother."

"Sasha Marick. I like it," Edmund said. "It's got flair."

"Flair?" Erica repeated with a raised eyebrow.

"It's all good. I love it. She's gorgeous, and you – you do not look like you just had a baby," Edmund said in a voice that sounded just a little too enthusiastic to Erica.

"Trust me – she most definitely DID have a baby. I was there all 30 hours, and I am in awe of my wife," Dimitri said.

Erica looked up at Edmund in time to see him glance at Maria. She watched in silence as Maria's face twisted briefly in an expression of pain before she turned on her heel and walked out of the room, murmuring a quiet "Excuse me, please," as she left.

"I am so sorry," Dimitri said quickly to his brother. "I didn't mean…"

"No," Edmund said with a slight shake of his head. "I know you didn't. It's okay. She really is happy for you both. It's just… hard."

"Maria's taking this quite hard, you having a baby and all when she and Eddie can't," Peggy said then, clearly stating the obvious as Edmund walked out after his wife.

"Maybe we shouldn't be here," Erica said. "Maybe… maybe we should stay at Linden instead."

Dimitri looked at her in surprise. "Don't be silly! Darling, this is our home. This is Sasha's home. Her nursery is all set up here. This is where we belong. Yes, Edmund and Maria are dealing with infertility, and it's been very hard on them, but us moving out… it would only make it worse in the long run. Edmund would be incredibly hurt if we ran out on him now."

Before Erica could respond, Sasha squirmed in Peggy's arms and let out a loud wail.

"Oh my! This one has a good set of lungs on her!" Peggy exclaimed.

"I'll take her!" Erica said quickly as she jumped up from the sofa.

"Sit! You just had a wee babe. Let me hand her to you," Peggy said firmly.

Erica sighed in frustration and sat back down, holding her arms out for her daughter. She cradled Sasha to her chest, and the baby's cries quieted.

"Oh she knows her mama, that one does! Smart girl!" Peggy said with a laugh. "We'll leave you two be with your baby. Corvina, help me take these things up to Erica and Dimitri's room."

Erica didn't miss the bitter expression on Corvina's face as the maid picked up one of her bags and left with the housekeeper.


	4. Chapter 4

"So did Dimitri and Erica come home with the baby?" Anton Lang casually asked his sister Corvina that night.

"They did," She said stiffly as she unwrapped the leftover meal she'd brought Anton and his wife, Kendall, who had not yet returned from work.

"And?"

"And what?"

"And… tell me about the baby," He said as he pushed his medical texts aside.

"Why do you care?" Corvina asked in her thickly accented English.

Anton laughed incredulously. "Because Dimitri is your boss. You've known him my whole life and then some. The man is paying for my education out of the goodness of his heart. He and his wife just had a baby, a baby who frankly happens to by my wife's half-sibling."

Corvina cringed at the mention of Kendall.

"Anton, you shouldn't say that, about Kendall and the baby," She chided.

"Why not? It's true whether Erica wants to admit it or not. Erica is Kendall's mother, even if she won't acknowledge her," He retorted.

Corvina sighed. Kendall was a sore subject amongst, well, everyone really. She herself had been safely tucked away at Vadzel in Budapest when Kendall's false accusations of rape against Dimitri led Erica to suffer a post-traumatic episode and stab him. Corvina was grateful to have missed the chaos of the trial and Erica's acquittal, but she'd had the misfortune of having a front row seat to witness the final disintegration of Dimitri and Erica's marriage, Erica's affair with Jack, and her eventual reunion with Dimitri, followed by their remarriage and Erica's pregnancy.

How someone as intelligent as Dimitri Marick managed to end up remarried to and sharing a child with the very woman who'd stabbed him confounded and confused Corvina to no end. Even so, Dimitri was her boss, despite their personal connection, and she would do her best to be respectful of his choices. After all, he was willing to respect her decision to raise Anton as her brother and not her son, and he was willing to keep that secret for Anton's sake, so she would keep her thoughts about Erica to herself.

"Anton, you know as I do that Dimitri and Erica do not consider them to be sisters," She said with a sigh. Her son's devotion to Kendall Hart was another subject that befuddled Corvina. What was it about Marick men that made them so utterly clueless when it came to women? Or was the problem not with the men but with those shrewish and manipulative Kane women?

"Sisters?" Anton said with an arch of his eyebrow. "So it's a girl then?"

Corvina sighed and offered her son a plate, smiling approvingly as he took it and began to eat.

"Yes, a girl. Sasha."

"Sasha? Is that short for Alexandra?" Anton asked between bites.

"No. Yes. It is something Alexandra. Mora? Mena? Mona?" Corvina said as she sank into a chair. She, Anton and Kendall shared a small apartment at the back of Wildwind, in the servants' quarters. It wasn't luxurious by any means, but Dimitri and Edmund allowed them to live there free of charge.

"Mona," Anton confirmed. "It's Kendall's grandmother's name."

Corvina shot her son a warning glance.

"So Sasha Marick. How is Erica?" He asked.

"I do not know," Corvina said sullenly. "She is back from the hospital. I assume she is fine. I had to carry all of her bags upstairs to their suite."

"How is Maria handling all of this?" He asked, ignoring Corvina's complaint about Erica's luggage.

"She is not happy, but I think she tries. I feel for her," Corvina said slowly. "It is terribly hard to watch another woman who has all that you have ever desired."

"Yes, that must be very difficult," Anton agreed, not understanding the double meaning in Corvina's words.

"What a long and miserable day!"

The door slammed behind Kendall as she sulked into the apartment.

"Hello to you too," Anton said.

"I spent all afternoon and evening at the library, putting together a bunch of research for Dimitri, and do you have any idea how RUDE people are? It's a LIBRARY – they need to be QUIET. Some of us have actual work to do!" She snapped. "Oh. Hi Corvina."

"Kendall," Corvina said evenly.

Kendall looked from Anton to Corvina and immediately picked up on their body language and the expression on their faces.

"What?" She asked.

Corvina looked uncomfortable.

"Erica and Dimitri are home from the hospital with the baby," Anton said finally.

Kendall's face fell for a brief moment but she immediately composed herself. "How nice. The golden child has arrived," She said bitterly.

"It's a girl," Anton offered.

"Of course it is. Because one little princess in the form of Bianca wasn't enough for Erica. She needed a second one," Kendall said in response.

Corvina sat up a little straighter. "Actually, I overheard Erica say last week that she wanted a boy."

Kendall raised an eyebrow. "Good. Then I hope she was disappointed. I'd hate to be her only disappointment as a child."

Corvina made her exit then, clearly no longer interested in listening to Kendall rant about Erica.

"She's gone now. You can stop with the tough girl act," Anton said, eyeing Kendall as she crossed the room to the small kitchen to get a glass of water.

"What act?"

"This. With the baby. Your mother just had another baby. Somewhere on the other side of Wildwind, your little sister is asleep in her crib. You don't have to pretend with me Kendall – it's okay to be upset," He said gently.

"I'm not upset," She insisted.

"No? Okay then. How about curious?" He asked.

"Not in the least," She said with a shrug.

"Nope? Well, I'm going to go over to the main house tomorrow to meet Mona Alexandra," Anton stated.

That got Kendall's attention.

"Mona? They named her Mona?" She asked in a more hesitant voice.

"Yes, but they're calling her Sasha – it's a nickname for Alexandra," He said.

Kendall was silent for a long moment, and she had a faraway look on her face.

"Do you think Erica would completely lose it if I came with you to meet my sister?" She finally asked.


	5. Chapter 5

"I promise you – she's okay."

Erica ignored her husband and kept vigil beside Sasha's bassinet, where her daughter lay swaddled and asleep.

"Erica?"

"Shh."

"Darling, lie down. I will move the bassinet right next to our bed if it makes you feel better, but I promise you – she is FINE. She's ASLEEP, and you should be too," Dimitri said as he steered his wife to bed.

Erica watched impatiently as he carefully wheeled the bassinet to her bedside. She checked on Sasha one more time before reluctantly getting under the covers.

"See? Isn't this much better?," He asked softly as he slid into bed beside Erica and wrapped his arms around her, curling up behind her.

"I just worry…" Erica said hesitantly.

"I can tell."

"Be serious," She whispered back.

"I am. What's going on? I mean, you've done this all before with Bianca. Why are you so nervous? I don't know that I've ever seen you this anxious," Dimitri said. "I'm the new father. I'm supposed to be the one panicking, right?"

"Erica?"

"I love her so much," She finally said. "I… I lost Bianca, and I barely get to see her. I wish so much, every day, with everything in me that I could go back and do it all again, that I could do whatever it took to keep custody of my daughter."

Dimitri tightened his arm around his wife and tenderly kissed the top of her head.

"I know my darling. I know. You are a WONDERFUL mother to Bianca."

"I wasn't though, at least not in the eyes of the court. They let Travis take her away from me. And now… now I have another chance, not with her, but with Sasha. I get another opportunity to be a mother, and I'm…" Her voice trailed off.

"Well, you don't have to worry about me running off with Sasha. You're stuck with me for the rest of your life, remember?" He said lightly.

"I just… I don't want to fail," She whispered. Her eyes fluttered closed in an attempt to hold back the tears, but it was a wasted effort when Dimitri turned her in the bed and touched her face gently.

"You are NOT going to fail," He said earnestly. "I promise."

"You don't know that."

He brushed over her cheek with his thumb and wiped away a lone tear before he dipped his head to kiss her.

"I do know it. We're a family Erica, and no one is going to come between us, and no one is going to fail – least of all you. I promise."

He cradled Erica in his arms and drifted off to sleep after that, and she was acutely aware of his steady breathing beside her. It made it harder to listen for the sound of Sasha's quiet breaths.

She wasn't sure how long she lay there like that, straining to hear her daughter breathing, before she finally fell asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

_Author's Note: I welcome all feedback, positive or negative, and as long as you aren't attacking me the writer, you're free to dislike any of the characters or their actions. In response to the anonymous anti-Marick review: Dimitri is a key player in this story, but Jack will play a large and very important role as well. This story is definitely slower to start than "Erica's Secret" (which is entirely a Jack/Erica story), but I also anticipate this being quite a lengthy piece before it reaches the conclusion. _

"She's awfully cranky," Dimitri observed the following morning as Sasha waved her tiny fist at him, screwed up her face and let out a shriek.

"I think she's hungry," Erica said as she attempted to soothe the baby. "Let me go make a bottle."

She passed the baby back to Dimitri and headed for the kitchen.

"Is that it? Are you hungry my little Countess?" He stood with Sasha and bounced her gently in his arms as he walked around the living room. Sash's cries quieted and she sucked on her hand.

"See, you're okay, and mommy will be back very soon with your bottle."

"Dimitri?"

He turned at the sound of his name and smiled at the sight of his grown son standing in the doorway to the parlor.

"Anton, hello! Please, come in!" Both of his children were in the same room together with him – the very thought thrilled Dimitri, even if he couldn't acknowledge his son publicly.

"Congratulations. Corvina said it's a girl," Anton said amiably as he approached Dimitri and Sasha.

"Yes, I'd like you to meet Sasha," Dimitri said with a grin, turning the baby to face Anton.

"What a pretty baby. And look at those eyes – she definitely has Erica's eyes," Anton observed.

"Yes she does. Lucky girl," Dimitri grinned.

Anton reached out to gently touch the baby's hand.

"Hi there," He cooed.

Sasha looked up at him with a wide-eyed look of surprise.

"Would you like to hold her?" Dimitri offered.

"Me? I've never held a baby," Anton admitted.

"Well, maybe you should start. It's not hard. I'm managing okay, I think."

Anton laughed at that and sat down on the sofa with Dimitri. Dimitri passed Sash to him then, carefully supporting the baby's head.

"She's so small," Anton said as he cradled the baby girl.

"She gets that from Erica too," Dimitri laughed.

"You look very natural holding a baby."

Dimitri jerked his head up at the sound of Kendall's voice.

Erica's long-lost daughter walked into the room and smiled at her husband. Dimitri felt his own chest constrict in a mixture of anger and anxiety at the sight of Kendall. It was hard to believe that someone that young and that innocent-looking had wreaked such havoc in his and Erica's lives. If he hadn't witnessed it all – and barely survived it all – himself, he probably wouldn't have believed it.

"You'll be a great father when we have a baby," Kendall said with a bright smile at her husband.

Dimitri felt bile rise up in his throat at the thought of Kendall and Anton sharing a child together. Just her being married to Anton was hard enough to stomach.

"Kendall," Dimitri said evenly, acknowledging her presence. His voice sounded calmer than he felt. He knew this was coming. He'd tried to warn Erica before Sasha's birth, tried to discuss Kendall with her and how to handle her, but Erica refused to discuss it beyond her declaration that she'd never subject an innocent baby to someone as maliciously evil as Kendall Hart Lang.

"I came to meet my little sister," She said calmly.


	7. Chapter 7

"This is not a good time," Dimitri said sharply.

"Why not? Erica's not here," Anton said.

"Erica went to get a bottle for Sasha. She'll be right back," Dimitri said. "And that's not the point."

"She's my SISTER," Kendall said, her voice taking on an imploring quality that Dimitri had heard far too many times already since Kendall came to town.

"Kendall, Erica just gave birth. She's…" Dimitri paused. He wasn't sure he could or even should convey to Kendall that Erica was on a hormonal roller coaster at the moment.

"This is not appropriate," He finished. He was trying to stay calm on the outside, but inside, he was both irritated and frustrated. Sasha didn't sleep much the night before, and they'd spent the night trading off bottle feedings and walking back and forth across the bedroom holding the baby. They were both operating on only a few hours of sleep spread out over the past few days. Add to that Erica's postpartum hormones and her anxiety over being a mother again, and he was already feeling stressed. Putting Kendall in the mix…

Dimitri glared at Kendall, wishing he could kick her out of Wildwind altogether. Had it not been for Anton, he'd have thrown Kendall out months ago. Why couldn't she wait before showing up here and demanding to see Sasha? Why couldn't she give them some peace?

"I'm not here to kidnap her or hurt her, Dimitri! I just want to meet her. I want to see her little face. I won't even ask to hold her. She's my sister as much as Bianca is," Kendall said as she moved closer to Anton and the baby.

"Come on Dimitri, what's the harm?" Anton asked.

"Dimitri, I went ahead and made a few extra…"

Dimitri groaned inwardly when he heard his wife's voice. Erica stopped short at the sight of Kendall standing in the living room beside Anton and Sasha.

Erica clutched the baby's bottle tightly as she rushed to Dimitri's side.

"Get out!" She gasped at Kendall.

"I have a right to be here!" Kendall insisted.

"You have NO right! Get away from my daughter!" Erica demanded.

Dimitri quickly took Sasha back from Anton and stood with the baby to calm her.

"I'm your daughter too!" Kendall retorted. "I know you don't like to admit it. I know you'd rather pretend I don't exist. I'm nothing to you – you'd pay more attention to something stuck to the bottom of your shoe – but that baby IS my sister. Nothing you can ever do or say changes that, and I have a right to know her."

Dimitri could see by the way Erica's body tensed, by the way she gripped the baby's bottle in her hands and by the way her hands trembled ever so slightly that Erica was doing her best to rein in her emotions and maintain control. He feared she was fighting a losing battle.

"A right? You have NO right!" Erica exploded. "Bianca was your sister too, but that didn't stop you from leaving her alone with the monster who RAPED me, with the disgusting piece of filth who would have done the same to her!"

"I didn't leave her alone! She showed up there entirely on her own, looking for me!" Kendall blew back defensively.

"And why was he here in Pine Valley? Because YOU found him. YOU brought him back here. YOU made it possible for him to go after my little girl! All because YOU refused to believe me when I told you what a sick bastard he was! YOU couldn't accept the truth!" Erica's voice rose with every word, and Sasha, apparently picking up on the tension in the room or perhaps realizing that her bottle was close by but still out of reach, started crying.

"I got Bianca away from him! She is my sister, and I would never want anyone to hurt her!" Kendall said in defense. "Would YOU want to accept that you're the result of something that horrific?"

Erica threw up her hands in exasperation at that, dropping the bottle in the process. "I TOLD YOU, Kendall! I told you what happened. I didn't want to tell you because I knew it would hurt you, but you demanded to know the truth! And regardless of whatever fairy tale he spun for you about that night, I was FOURTEEN! He was a grown man, and it was my 14th birthday. Even if I'd consented – and believe me, I fought with everything I had in me – it still would have been rape because I was a CHILD!"

"Look, Kendall made mistakes. She made some really, really big ones," Anton conceded. "But you're family. You and Sasha and Bianca – you're the only family Kendall has."

"No," Erica said stubbornly with a shake of her head. "Kendall's PARENTS are Alice and Bill Hart. They raised her. Kendall is related to me by crime, and that's it."

Dimitri had seen Kendall react to reminders of her conception before, and as much as he often despised the young woman before him, he knew that Erica's choice of words cut her deeply. He and Erica had both bent over backwards to open their lives to Kendall when they discovered who she really was, and they'd made every attempt to make her a part of their family, but Dimitri knew Erica was incapable of giving Kendall what she really wanted: a mother's unconditional love, the same love she gave freely to Bianca and now to Sasha as well.

Tears welled in Kendall's eyes at Erica's statement.

"I know you hate me," She said quietly to her mother, "But this is my sister. You can't deny me a relationship with my sisters."

"I can and I will," Erica said in a deadly serious voice, one that left no room for objection. "Stay away from my baby."

"Anton, Kendall, this is not a good time. Please, go," Dimitri said, gesturing toward the doorway.

Erica reached for her newborn daughter then and cradled the baby protectively against her. She turned her back on Kendall as she attempted to calm an increasingly frantic Sasha.

"Shhh… Mommy's right here. It's okay sweetheart."

"This isn't over, Erica," Kendall said sharply.

"Yes, it is. Go!" Dimitri snapped. Anton shrugged apologetically at Dimitri as he took Kendall by the arm and led her from the room. Erica never turned around to acknowledge them before they left.


	8. Chapter 8

"Are you going to talk to me?" Dimitri finally asked, long after Kendall and Anton had left. Erica was seated across the room from him, feeding Sasha her bottle.

She looked up from the baby long enough to glare at her husband.

"How could you, Dimitri?" she asked. "You know how I feel about Kendall! How could you let her near Sasha?"

Dimitri sighed. "Erica, we had this conversation before Sasha's birth. I tried to warn you then that this would happen. Kendall lives here with Anton, and whether you want to acknowledge it or not, she is related by blood to our daughter. You had to know that she'd want to see the baby."

"But YOU! How could YOU just sit there and let Kendall around our baby? Dimitri, you can't trust Kendall, not for a second!" she insisted.

"Erica I was RIGHT THERE!" he retorted in irritation. "What did you think was going to happen? That Kendall was going to shoot her with a death ray from her eyes or something? She was just standing there, a few feet away. She wasn't even touching Sasha."

"Now you're MOCKING me?" Betrayal and hurt were evident in her voice.

"No, I was not mocking you," he said with a sigh. Erica looked like she was about to cry, and he had absolutely no idea why tears were forming in her eyes or what he'd done to bring them on, but he felt like a jerk nevertheless.

"Darling, I just want you to accept that at some point Kendall would want to at least look at Sasha. She's done that, and I was there to make sure that nothing happened. Sasha is safe, and I'm sure Kendall's curiosity is satisfied now," he offered.

Erica shook her head stubbornly. "Kendall is never satisfied, and she never will be."

Dimitri looked down at the floor in silence for a moment. Erica's unspoken words hung in the air between them. No, Kendall never was satisfied, and she never would be, not until Erica could give Kendall what she craved most: a mother's unconditional love. Dimitri knew it was impossible. Even before the trial, before the stabbing, before all of the lies and the enormous mess Kendall made of their lives, Erica tried to get to know the daughter she'd given away. He'd pushed her, perhaps too hard, to welcome Kendall into their lives, to find a connection with the daughter she'd never wanted.

He looked up again at Erica and Sasha. She was looking down at the baby and not at him. He sighed again. He never should have pushed Erica back then. He should have trusted her to know best what she could and couldn't handle. He should have let her decide how to deal with Kendall and stayed out of it.

Erica's gut instinct was to take it slow, to try to get to know Kendall as a person, to see if she could find something there to like, something there to perhaps someday love, something that didn't remind her of the single most horrific night of her life. He'd pushed her to make Kendall a part of their family though because she seemed so lost and so angry – so like Edmund when he first arrived in Pine Valley but with a quiet vulnerability to her that reminded him a bit of Mona Tyler. Dimitri had been able to overcome years of lies to love and accept Edmund as his brother, so he'd naively pushed Erica to do the same with Kendall.

God what a mistake that had been. As long as he lived, Dimitri was certain he'd never forgive himself for the mistakes he'd made with Erica and Kendall during his first marriage to Erica. For at least the millionth time, he silently thanked the heavens that they'd been able to get past the chaos Kendall brought into their life, that they'd been able to remarry, and that they now had this perfect, healthy, beautiful new daughter.

"You're right," he said finally in a quiet voice.

Erica nodded at him as she put Sasha's bottle aside.

"About Kendall. I'm sorry," he said.

Erica shifted Sasha into an upright position and patted her back gently to burp her.

"I won't let anyone or anything hurt our daughter," she said evenly.

"I know, and neither will I," he replied.

He fell silent again as he watched Erica cradle the baby and pat Sasha's back. Sasha finally burped and then rested her head on Erica's shoulder as if she was exhausted by the exertion involved.

Erica kissed the top of Sasha's head and stroked her back.

"Do you feel better my darling?" she cooed to the baby. "My sweet precious little girl… I love you so much. Do you know that? Your mommy loves you and your sister Bianca more than anything else in the world."

Dimitri smiled as she doted on the baby. Neither he nor Erica realized that just outside the parlor, someone was listening in on their every word.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Nearly a week (and many sleepless nights) later, Erica paced nervously around the Wildwind parlor.

"Erica, sit down," Dimitri said finally. He was seated on the sofa, reading a newspaper, and Sasha was asleep in the bassinet nearby.

"They should be here by now," she said.

"Well, maybe they got held up at the airport. They'll be here soon."

"We should have gone there ourselves," she said with a shake of her head.

"You said you didn't want to expose Sasha to germs," he pointed out.

"I didn't realize the alternative was TRAVIS bringing Bianca all the way to the front door himself!" Erica said in response.

Dimitri put down the paper and looked at his wife. "What are you so afraid of?"

Erica stopped short and stared at him. "I'm not afraid of anything," she said defensively.

"You're about to wear a path in the rug from pacing."

"I am not!" she said.

"Just admit it: Travis coming here makes you a nervous wreck."

She folded her arms over her chest and for a moment Dimitri thought that she was about to tear into him verbally, but then she looked away and sighed.

"I'm judged. I'm always judged by Travis," she said softly.

He started to respond, but Erica continued before he could say anything.

"He lords his role of primary custodial parent over me, and everything I do or say is examined under a microscope. I nearly lost Bianca during the trial. I was only allowed to spend time with her per the custody arrangement because Travis was fairly convinced I was going to jail for a long, long time and he'd be free of me.

"You saw what he was like, Dimitri, when he came down here before our first wedding, when the news about Kendall came out. The way he just assumed that I'd been whoring myself out, even at such a young age. That I was a victim in that situation never even occurred to him! That's how little he thinks of me," she said.

Dimitri could hear the hurt in her voice, and his heart broke for the pain he knew his wife suffered over the fractured relationship she had with Bianca.

"Come here," he said, standing up and holding out his arms to her. Erica walked into his embrace and let him hold her.

"I know how much you love Bianca and how much you miss her. But darling, please, please don't allow Travis to put this much stress on you. Travis can't hurt us. We are married, we are happy, and we are raising a child together. Bianca is going to be able to bond with Sasha, and who knows, maybe by this time next year, we'll be able to make a very compelling case to a family court judge that it would be in Bianca's best interests to spend more time here. Perhaps even joint custody," he offered as he stroked her hair and her back gently.

"Do you mean that?" she asked, looking up at him in surprise.

"What? Going back to court to get more time with Bianca?" he replied.

She nodded.

"Of course I mean it," he said with a smile. "Bianca is part of our family, and I want her here with us just as much as you do. So don't worry about Travis. If he wants to poke his nose in here when he drops Bianca off, let him! What's he going to see, but a happily married couple, basking in the joy of the birth of their new daughter and beyond thrilled to welcome their other daughter home?"

"I love you," she said softly.

He grinned and leaned in to kiss her. "I know."

He laughed at her muttered complaint about his ego and then kissed her again.

"You'll see Erica – this visit is going to be great. Bianca is going to adore Sasha, Travis is not going to find anything remotely upsetting here, and everything is going to be fine. I promise."

He could see the worry still in her eyes, but she forced a small smile for him.

"I hope you're right," was the only other thing she said until Travis and Bianca arrived at the front door.

"MOMMY!"

Bianca's exuberance was contagious, and it was hard for Dimitri not to grin as he watched his wife reunite with Bianca. The moment Bianca walked through the door she flung herself into Erica's arms and nearly knocked her mother over.

"Oh my darling, I missed you SO much!" Erica exclaimed as she hugged Bianca tightly.

"Ahem."

Travis's cough had the desired effect, and Erica reluctantly released Bianca to look up at her ex-husband.

"The driver will bring Bianca's bags in," he said stiffly.

"Travis, how are you?" Dimitri asked in an effort to be friendly.

"Fine. I'm fine. I'm glad business brings me back to the east coast so I can travel with Bianca," he replied.

Erica raised an eyebrow, and Dimitri knew it was only Bianca's presence that kept her from speaking her mind. He'd done his best to reassure his wife, but he was fairly certain Travis was on a fishing expedition as well.

"Where is she? I want to see my baby sister!" Bianca asked excitedly.

"You seem pretty excited about being a big sister!" Dimitri said as he bent to hug his stepdaughter.

"It's not a new thing. She's been a big sister for years," Travis said.

"This is her sister on my side of the family, and it's obviously a big deal to her Travis. There's no point in belittling this," Erica said with quiet disdain.

"Well, it was nice of you to let me know this child was coming. So much better than reading about it in the tabloids like the last time you had a child show up here," he said acidly.

Dimitri saw Erica tense, and had Bianca not been standing in between him and his wife, he would have reached for her arm in an attempt to prevent her from slapping Travis across the face. It was Sasha though who managed to salvage the situation by crying out from her bassinette in the parlor. Erica glared at Travis and then turned on her heel and led Bianca into the parlor.

"I think your little sister is protesting because you're here and she hasn't had a chance to meet you yet," she said to Bianca.

Dimitri and Travis both followed Erica and Bianca into the parlor where Erica lifted Sasha from the bassinet and cradled her in her arms to soothe the baby's cries.

"Let me see her!" Bianca insisted, standing on the balls of her feet to get a better view of the baby.

"Come sit down with me, and you can hold her," Erica offered with a smile.

Erica and Bianca both sat down together on the large green velvet sofa, and Erica carefully passed the baby to Bianca.

"Support her head with your hand darling," she said.

Sasha wriggled for a moment, her eyes focused on Erica before she realized that someone else was holding her. The baby looked up at Bianca with a furrowed brow and look of utter confusion on her little face.

"Oh Mommy! She's so pretty!" Bianca cooed. "Was I this pretty when I was a baby?"

"Absolutely! You were every bit as gorgeous as a baby, wasn't she Travis?" Erica said, glancing up at her ex-husband.

Travis walked closer and craned his neck a bit to look at Sasha.

"Oh I think she's almost as pretty as you were Bianca," he said, offering a smile to his daughter.

"But your sister is very pretty too," he added as an afterthought. "Where did she get the blonde hair?"

Erica looked at Travis for a moment with a stunned look on her face.

"What?"

"Her hair, well, what little she has of it. It looks blonde. You'd think it would be dark like yours," he said.

Erica looked down at the baby. Sasha had entered the world with only the slightest bit of peach fuzz on her head, but in just the last few days the peach fuzz seemed to be giving way to wisps of darker blonde hair. From a distance, she still looked quite bald, but up close…

Dimitri frowned at Erica's flustered and surprisingly angry reaction.

"There's nothing wrong with her hair!" she said indignantly as she slid an arm protectively around Bianca and Sasha both. "Must I remind you that my mother had blonde hair? I can't believe you have the audacity to come into our home and make rude comments about my baby!"

Travis was taken aback by Erica's words.

"Jesus Erica. I wasn't being rude. I was simply making an observation," he said defensively. "Mona's hair was white when I first met her, but now that you mention it, yes I remember seeing photos of her when she was younger, and her hair was kind of blonde. I was just surprised because you and Dimitri both have dark hair and dark eyes."

Bianca looked down at her little sister. "Sasha has brown eyes like mommy and me, Daddy. Her eyes aren't blue like Grandma Mona," she said.

Travis looked down at the baby again. "Yes, she does have your mommy's eyes," he acknowledged.

Erica was shooting daggers at Travis by that point, so Dimitri figured that was his cue to get Travis out of there as quickly as possible.

"Ah Travis, I think you said you were taking the train from Philadelphia to DC for business, right?" Dimitri asked as he stood up. "You should probably get going – traffic around Philadelphia can be awful."

To his relief, Travis took the hint and made his goodbyes, hugging Bianca tightly after she passed Sasha back to Erica.

"I'm going to have a great time Daddy. Don't worry," Bianca said brightly. "I get to be with Mommy and Sasha, and I don't have to see that icky awful Kendall anymore."

The look that passed between Erica and Dimitri did not escape Travis's attention.

"Kendall had better be gone. I don't want that psychotic witch around Bianca," he said sharply.

"You have nothing to worry about, Travis," Erica said firmly. "Believe me – Kendall is the last person I want around either of my children."


	10. Chapter 10

For the Jack fans out there, this might be a good time to pay attention. ;) I'd also like to thank everyone for the very kind PMs. I'm glad you're enjoying the story.

Chapter 10

It was a perfectly glorious early fall morning, two days into Bianca's visit, and Erica was seated on the terrace at Wildwind, holding Sasha in her arms as she waited for Bianca and Dimitri to return from their morning horseback ride to join her for brunch.

"Mrs. Marick?" a voice called out behind her.

"Yes?"

"Mr. Montgomery is here to see Miss Bianca," one of the maids announced in a quiet voice, careful not to disturb the sleeping baby. Sasha's periods of sleep were so brief and so erratic and Erica in particular was so sleep-deprived that Dimitri had demanded near silence throughout Wildwind when the baby was asleep.

Erica sighed at the mention of Jackson Montgomery.

"Send him out here, but tell him to be quiet," she said in a soft voice.

A few moments later, Jackson joined her on the terrace.

"I would ask how you're doing, but the maid threatened me with all sorts of horrors if I woke up the baby," he quipped.

"She wasn't kidding either," Erica said. Sasha was asleep on her mother's chest, decked out in a soft pink dress with a matching bonnet. Erica had a plush pink baby blanket draped over Sasha to protect her from any chill from the slight breeze that rustled through the trees.

"May I?" he asked, gesturing to a chair across from Erica.

She nodded and he sat down, holding a gift box in his hands.

"What is that?" she asked.

"Oh, this is just a little something for Bianca. I hear she's out riding with Dimitri?" he said with a smile.

"Yes, but they should be back fairly soon. It's impossible to keep Bianca out of the stables and away from the horses," she said.

"Well, I thought she might be in need of some new riding gloves," he said amiably as he put the gift box on the table.

"I'm sure she'll love that. She was just complaining that hers were too tight," Erica admitted.

They sat in an uncomfortable silence for a few moments. This was so awkward, Erica thought. Less than a year ago, Jack had proposed to her on the runway of an haute couture fashion show while she was garbed in a wedding gown, veil and elaborate tiara. She'd gotten caught up in the moment, and she'd accepted his proposal.

If there was no hope for reconciliation with Dimitri, she might as well say yes to Jackson. That was what she told herself as he slipped a diamond engagement ring on her finger. It was what she told herself when they made love that night. It was what she told herself for weeks following his proposal as he brought up practical matters like when he should move into Linden House and when Erica wanted to actually get married. Jack was a good man. He was a decent man. He loved her, and he loved Bianca. They'd been engaged before, but life had conspired against them, and a path to the altar hadn't been clear before. Admittedly she still loved Dimitri, but she cared deeply for Jack too. It could work, she told herself. Maybe the universe or some higher power was telling her that if she couldn't have Dimitri, and she was meant to be with Jack. She lived with that theory for weeks, playing the role of doting fiancé and happy bride-to-be, but in the back of her mind, a little voice kept telling her no. If this was really the end for her and for Dimitri, then she needed to know for sure.

When Gloria and Adam Chandler's premature daughter, Anna Claire, died, the death hit Erica quite hard, despite the lack of a personal connection to Gloria. Life was short. That was the message she took away from Anna Claire's death. It was short, and it was unfair, and if you had a chance to have what you really wanted, you better well take it.

She'd tearfully returned Jack's engagement ring, breaking his heart in the process. He'd never get over that, she was fairly certain. He'd walked out on her last time in anger. She walked out on him this time with a sense of sadness. She didn't want to hurt Jack, and in a different set of circumstances, she would have married him and loved him and done her best to live happily ever after with him. It wasn't fair to him though, she'd told him. She wasn't over Dimitri, and it wasn't fair to him for them to marry unless her heart really and truly belonged to Jack.

He said he didn't care. He said he loved her anyway, that they could overcome any obstacles as long as they were together. She could hear the plea in his voice, that mournful 'don't go' even though they both knew she'd leave. This was something she had to do. If she couldn't salvage her relationship with Dimitri, then maybe one day, when she'd grieved the end of their relationship, maybe then if Jack was free and still wanted her, they could be together. But not now.

After Anna Claire's funeral, she'd handed Gloria her mother's Bible in the hopes of bringing comfort to a grieving mother and silently thanked God that her own daughter was alive and well. She didn't realize until after she'd turned to leave that Dimitri had witnessed this act of kindness. That look in eyes as he gazed at her… maybe, just maybe…

Erica Kane wasn't in a habit of showing vulnerability to others. She didn't like throwing open her heart and taking the risk of receiving a near mortal wound, but she'd done it. She'd shown up at the hunting lodge and poured her heart out to Dimitri and asked him if this was really and truly the end for them. She braced herself for the inevitable rejection. She was going to end up alone. She'd known that was a risk, but she'd taken it. Life was too short.

She cried tears of joy and relief when he admitted that he still loved her as well, that he wanted to be with her just as much as she wanted to be with him. They'd allowed one night of passion and peace and quiet and then it was a whirlwind couple of weeks that followed: breaking the news to Bianca that they were back together and getting remarried, moving Erica back into Wildwind, arranging Bianca's Christmas vacation visit to Pine Valley, and the New Year's Eve surprise wedding Dimitri sprung on her.

That New Year's Eve was easily one of the best nights of her life. It ranked up there with Bianca's birth as far as Erica was concerned. Dimitri may have surprised her with the intimate wedding – complete with an exquisite Badgley Mischka wedding gown – but she was the one with the big surprise, the best surprise. When they returned to the hunting lodge that night, still decked out in their wedding attire, she'd smiled beatifically at her husband and told him that they were going to have a baby.

Jack's voice drew Erica back to the present.

"What?" she asked.

"I said 'How is motherhood the second time around?'" he smiled at her.

He referred to Sasha's birth as her second time being a mother, and she loved him for that, for knowing that she didn't - couldn't - consider Kendall her child.

She hesitated for a moment.

"I kind of got the impression from the maid that this little one is giving you a run for your money," he said with a slight laugh.

Erica sighed. "She doesn't sleep," she admitted. "Not much anyway. She's had her days and her nights mixed up, but even then, she's not napping enough during the day. She sleeps best when someone holds her, but she sleeps the longest if I sit here, holding her on my chest like this. And then I don't get anything accomplished because I'm just sitting here, but it's better than listening to her scream."

She bit her lip then, regretting this admission. It seemed somehow un-motherly to admit that your baby was difficult, but oddly enough, she didn't think Jack would judge her for it.

Jack raised an eyebrow and offered Erica a friendly smile. "So she's got a good set of lungs on her?" he asked in an amused voice.

Erica shook her head. "That doesn't begin to cover it. She doesn't just cry – she screams. Jack, I've never heard a baby with such a loud, high-pitched scream before."

"Demanding already. You're in for trouble, Erica."

"Don't laugh. It's not funny!" she snapped. "I haven't slept more than three hours straight since she was born."

"Seriously?" he asked in surprise.

"Yes."

He frowned. "Doesn't Dimitri help with her?"

"Of course he helps with her. He adores her. Dimitri is a wonderful father!" Erica said defensively.

"Okay, I was just asking. If you're sleep-deprived…"

"He helps! He gets up with Sasha all the time!" she repeated. "She just doesn't sleep well for anyone. We're both exhausted."

"But you're the one who just had a baby," he pointed out.

"Yes, and that's why I'm sitting here holding her instead of getting up at the crack of dawn to take Bianca on a very long ride," she snapped.

Without her really intending to do so, Erica raised her voice defensively as she snapped at Jack, and as she did, Sasha startled and cried out.

At the baby's movement and cries, Erica closed her eyes for a long moment and took a steadying breath.

"You woke her up!" she said in frustration as she stood up and paced around the terrace with Sasha, bouncing the baby lightly in her arms and trying to soothe her.

"I woke her up? You're the one who snapped at me!" Jack replied in surprise. His eyes widened at the noise coming from the tiny baby in Erica's arms, and Erica knew from the look on his face that he'd clearly underestimated the pitch and volume Sasha could reach.

Erica turned back toward Jack, ready with an indignant remark about how if he hadn't come here, she wouldn't have had anything to say to anyone and her daughter would still be asleep. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she did, a stronger breeze rustled through the trees and across the terrace, knocking Sasha's bonnet askew. The baby waved her arm in protest as she cried and managed to knock the bonnet to the ground.

Jack looked at Erica and Sasha both for a moment, and his mouth hung open in shock.

"Her hair," he said hoarsely.

Erica closed her eyes. She knew what was coming.

"Is that… God, Erica, is she MY baby?"


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Erica placed a hand protectively over Sasha's head.

"NO!" she said quickly. "Of course not! I told you before Jack, you aren't the father!"

He walked toward her and bent to pick up Sasha's bonnet.

"She has blonde hair," he repeated. He had a shell-shocked look on his face as he held out the bonnet to Erica.

She snatched it back quickly.

"Lucy? LUCY!" she called out as she turned back to the house.

The maid appeared in the doorway moments later.

"Yes, Mrs. Marick?"

"Can you get one of Sasha's bottles for me please?" Erica asked above Sasha's piercing cry.

Lucy offered Erica a sympathetic nod and then quickly rushed back into the gothic manor house.

"It's alright darling," she cooed as she attempted to soothe the baby.

"Erica, I asked you once before…" Jack said slowly.

She shook her head defensively. "And I told you then – you aren't the father, Jack. Sasha isn't your daughter."

"She has blonde hair," he repeated, looking harder at the baby this time.

"So did my mother," she said in frustration. "My mother had blonde hair, Jack. You know that."

"It's a recessive gene, Erica. You don't have blonde hair and neither does Dimitri," he pointed out.

"Stop it!" she hissed. "Just STOP IT."

She attempted to turn away from him, but Jack grabbed her upper arm and refused to let her walk away.

"Erica, I have a right to know!" he said in a low but urgent voice.

"I'm telling you – you are not the father. Dimitri is her father!" she repeated.

"I have her bottle Mrs. Marick," Lucy said as she came running onto the terrace. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

Erica shook her head and sat down with Sasha. "No that's all. Mr. Montgomery and I would like some privacy."

Erica breathed an enormous sigh of relief when Sasha began drinking from the bottle and her cries were at least temporarily quieted. Jack sat back down across from Erica and waited until Lucy was likely out of earshot.

"What do you expect me to think?" he said, shaking his head in disbelief. "You had a baby, a baby who was conceived around the same time you broke off our engagement. Regardless of what you said back then, it's obvious from her birthdate that there's a chance she's mine – and now I'm looking at her, and she has blonde hair. What the hell am I supposed to think?"

Erica shifted in the chair and attempted to turn Sasha in toward her chest as she fed her daughter. "You're supposed to trust me! You're supposed to believe me the first time," she hissed.

Jack pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, and she watched in silence as he then leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees and folded his hands. H e rested his chin on his hands and his eyes were closed, thank God. She didn't think she could handle it if he gazed at her in that hard way of his, like she was a hostile witness on the stand.

She wasn't sure what to do next or what to say, what magical combination of words would convince him that he'd made an incorrect assumption of enormous magnitude. But instead of trying to figure out what to say to him, she found herself remembering the first time they'd had this conversation.

_"I'm here because my niece told me that she's going to be a big sister."_

_She hesitated for a moment, unsure how to read the expression on his face._

_"Well, we hadn't planned to share the news quite this early, but Bianca was already here for Christmas and for the wedding, and I really needed to tell her in person," she said._

_"She seems a little unsettled about the news," Jack said as he approached her desk. _

_Erica swallowed hard and closed the file she'd been reviewing. _

_"Bianca is…she's upset by the idea that I'm going to have another child who will live with me full-time when she's so far away," she said carefully. "She's worried that I'll love this baby more."_

_Her daughter's fears had torn at her heart, and she'd promised Bianca that no one could ever, ever take her place in her mother's life. _

_Jack nodded and didn't say anything._

_"Dimitri and I reassured her that she's incredibly important to us."_

_"Is Travis being a jerk about it?" Jack asked. She watched as he touched the back of the upholstered chair in front of him. He seemed nervous._

_"I'm sorry. That's probably none of my business," he added._

_"Travis agrees that it would be best for Bianca if she's able to visit as frequently as possible so she can spend time with Dimitri and me and come to grips with the idea of a younger sibling before the baby comes."_

_"That's good. I'm glad he's being reasonable."_

_His fingers tapped across the back of the chair. Definitely nervous._

_She tilted her head at him, waiting for him to make whatever point he'd come here to make. _

_"Aren't you going to congratulate me?" she finally asked._

_He looked down at her for a moment. _

_"I just need to know, and I need you to be honest with me: is this my baby?" he asked._

_The question wasn't entirely unexpected, but it still hit her hard in the gut. Behind her desk, hidden from view, she pressed her hand protectively over her lower belly. _

_"Jack…"_

_Her voice had more of a pleading tone to it than she preferred. She looked away for a moment and drew in a ragged breath. _

_"Erica, I need to know," he repeated._

_She shook her head abruptly. _

_"No Jack, this is not your baby," she said firmly. _

_She stood up from her desk then and walked across the room to return the file to her filing cabinet. He caught her by the arm when she attempted to walk back to her desk._

_"Erica, are you sure? Because it seemed like one day you were engaged to me, and the next you'd reconciled with Dimitri, and before I could turn around you were remarried, and I'm hearing from Bianca that you're having a baby," he said._

_She felt guilty at the sad expression on his face. She hadn't meant to hurt him by breaking their engagement, but it had been the right thing to do, the best thing to do for everyone involved. He'd come to see that, eventually, she was certain. She pulled her arm free from his grasp._

_"Jack, I know that I hurt you when I said that I couldn't marry you," she said sympathetically, "Please, don't do this. Don't make me hurt you more."_

_"Yes, losing you hurt. It hurt like hell. It still hurts like hell," he admitted. "Just about the only thing you could ever do that would hurt more would be to keep me from my baby. I know you love Dimitri. I know you wanted him back, but if this baby is mine, if there's even a remote chance that it's mine, I won't let you push me aside so you can salvage your relationship with Dimitri. I'm not willing to give up my child for you."_

_"Jack, it's not like we made love, and then the next day I was back in Dimitri's bed," she pointed out. "It happened fast, but not that fast! Do you really think that I'd marry Dimitri, that I'd let him rejoice in his impending fatherhood if I believed this was your baby?"_

_He blew out a hard breath and looked away. _

_"I think…I think that when you set your mind to something, you don't stop until you get exactly what you want. You made it clear that you wanted Dimitri. You said as much to me when you ended our engagement."_

_That hurt. _

_"Do you really think that little of me?" she asked in surprise, taken aback by his accusation._

_He shook his head and reached for her, touching her face gently as he looked down at her. _

_"I love you, and you know that. I know you don't want to be married to me, and I can accept that. I don't like it, but I respect your decision. But if there is any chance, any at all, that we could have conceived this baby before you ended our engagement, I have a right to know," he said earnestly. _

_She nodded ever so slightly in acknowledgement of his words. _

_"I'm not asking you to end your marriage," he continued, "Or demanding that you be with me. I just want to be a father to my child. You know how much I love Lily, and how much I love Bianca. If this is our baby, we can work together on this, some sort of shared parenting arrangement."_

_She pushed his hands away from her and took a step back. _

_"Jack, I can understand why you'd wonder about my pregnancy, and of course, I know how you adore Lily. You're a very good father. Any child would be lucky to have you as a father. But this child isn't yours. This is Dimitri's baby. I'm sure of it. Believe whatever you want about me, but surely you know me well enough to know that I'd never force my child to live a lie like that," she said imploringly. _

_His hand, which had been outstretched toward her dropped limply to his side. _

_"Okay." _

_It was said softly and in an almost broken voice. He turned his face away from her. _

_Erica folded her arms protectively over her body and hoped this was almost over._

_"I just… I just needed to know," he said softly. _

_"I understand," she said. _

_"I am happy for you, you know that, right?" he offered._

_She nodded and smiled a sad smile at him. "I know."_

_He touched her upper arm gently and then, to her immense surprise, he leaned in and kissed her cheek. She looked up at him, at the disappointment in his eyes and the forced smile on his face. _

_"For what it's worth, I know how much you love Bianca, and I have no doubt that you'll be a wonderful mother to this baby," he said. _

_"Thank you."_

_There was nothing left to say after that, so she stood in silence and watched as he walked out of her office and out of her life. When the door closed behind Jack, she exhaled and looked up at the ceiling for a moment, blinking back tears. _

_Then she drew in another deep breath and sat back down at her desk. She looked at the stack of work in front of her for a moment before pushing it aside. She reached into her desk drawer and pulled out her date book from the previous year. She flipped it open to November 1994 and perused the calendar. Then she turned to December 1994. _

_Erica stared at the calendar for a long time, the dates burned into her mind. She silently traced her fingers over the pages, counting as she went. She'd done this exercise over and over again for weeks now, and she knew she'd do it many more times before this was all over. _

_"It was too soon. We were together too soon for this to be Jack's baby," she whispered to herself. The odds were heavily in Dimitri's favor. Even Dr. Clader agreed with her on that point. This was Dimitri's baby. It had to be._


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Jack opened his eyes and looked at Erica and Sasha.

"I want to believe you," he said quietly, drawing her back from her memories.

She waited for the inevitable 'but.'

"But she looks like me," he finished.

"NO. No she does NOT," Erica said emphatically.

Sasha pulled away from the bottle and screamed then, arching her back in her mother's arms.

"No, no, no sweetheart! Not again," Erica said under her breath as she quickly put the bottle aside. She shifted Sasha upright and patted her back in attempt to calm the baby.

Jack looked at them both with concern.

"Does she do this all the time?" he asked.

Erica paced around the terrace with the baby. "Yes."

"That's… that doesn't sound normal."

"I know that," she snapped back.

"What's wrong with her?" he asked.

"I don't know. Okay, I don't know!" she said in frustration. "She doesn't sleep. She fights with me when she eats. She screams all the time. I don't know what's wrong with her!"

"Well, what does her doctor say?" Jack asked. He got up from his seat and crossed the terrace to Erica.

She sighed in exasperation. "So far nothing, other than 'Babies cry' and that as long as she's gaining weight, he's not worried."

She turned away from him again to pace back across the terrace and as she did so, she shifted Sasha further up on her chest and shoulder. She hadn't intended to give Jack a good view of her daughter's face. She didn't even realize she'd done it until he made comment.

"She has your eyes."

She turned abruptly back toward him.

"What?"

"Your eyes," he said over Sasha's wails, which resumed with greater force when Erica stopped pacing. "She has your eyes."

"Yes I know. That's what everyone says," she said.

"She's beautiful."

She knew that the 'thank you' she threw out in response to Jack wasn't exactly said in the politest of voices, but she really didn't care.

After she paced back and forth across the terrace a few more times, Sasha's cries finally quieted. Erica kept pacing though, afraid to sit back down and accidentally trigger another bout of screaming.

"Jack, the only possible way in which my daughter resembles you is that what little hair she has is light in color," Erica finally said, "And I've already explained that my mother had light hair. Sasha does not look like you."

"I wouldn't really know – you keep walking away with her," he said in response.

Erica glared at him for a moment and then sighed. She turned the baby outward then, holding Sasha's back to her chest, all the while praying this new position wouldn't set off a fit of screams. She lowered her head to press a gentle kiss on Sasha's mostly-bald head.

Jack smiled at the baby as she gazed around. "She really is gorgeous," he said. "She looks like Bianca though the eyes."

"Bianca has my eyes too," Erica reminded him.

She watched him study her daughter's face. She knew he was looking for something, anything, beyond her hair color that would give him pause. She'd done the same thing herself, looking for any sign of dimples or even the slightest cleft of the chin. She'd looked at the shape of her daughter's nose, and the angle of her jaw.

"Jack, she doesn't look like you. The hair – it's a coincidence, a genetic fluke. That's ALL," she finally said.

"You and Travis both have dark hair and dark eyes, but Bianca doesn't have blonde hair," he pointed out obstinately. "She's just as closely related to Mona as Sasha is."

Erica shot him an exasperated look. "As you've so amply pointed out, blonde hair is a recessive gene. It wouldn't be normal for them to both have blonde hair, now would it? Besides, I highly doubt that her hair will stay light – it will probably get darker as she gets older. Plenty of dark-haired adults were blonde as children, Jack."

He looked at her as if he wanted to say something, but his eyes went back to Sasha instead. After a long moment, he sighed and then looked away.

"Okay, I admit it,," he said in a barely audible voice. "I don't necessarily think she looks like Dimitri, but other than the hair, I don't see any resemblance to me either."

She raised an eyebrow at his comment about Dimitri.

"Jack, I understand why you'd have…concerns," she said carefully, "but enough time passed between the last time we were together and the night Dimitri and I reunited."

"You're sure," he said.

She nodded and kissed Sasha's head again. "Dr. Clader even said so."

He looked surprised at that.

"You talked to your doctor? About the chance that this was my baby?"

She hesitated for a moment, hoping she hadn't accidentally given him more ammunition.

"After you came to my office that day, I did bring it up with Dr. Clader, and he's adamant that it's not possible. There's no doubt in his mind," she said firmly. Okay, so that statement wasn't 100% accurate, but it was close enough.

"He says this is Dimitri's baby," Jack said, needing clarification.

"Yes. Yes, she is. There is no doubt. Now, please, let this go," she said imploringly.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"Corvina? Corvina? What are you doing there?"

Corvina turned abruptly and gasped, dropping her dust cloth onto the floor, startled by Peggy's appearance.

"I was…I was dusting, and then I…my earring fell out," Corvina stammered.

"Your earring?" Peggy asked.

"Yes, I seem to have lost it," she said and quickly bent down to pat the carpet by her feet.

Peggy paused in the hallway and glanced around. Just behind Corvina, through the ornate French doors, Erica was standing outside on the terrace holding little Sasha and talking to someone.

"Well, I guess you can look for it in a minute. I was going to call Lucy, but since you're right here, help me push this cart onto the terrace and set up brunch for Dimi and Erica and the girls," Peggy said as she started toward the door to the terrace.

Corvina looked ill at the thought, but she pushed open the French doors and helped Peggy maneuver the cart onto the stone terrace.

"Well now, I didn't realize you had company," Peggy announced as she pushed the cart toward Jack and Erica.

Erica turned in surprise, clearly startled to see Peggy and Corvina.

"Jack stopped by to see Bianca," she said firmly, hoping to squelch any possible rumors amongst the staff at Wildwind.

"I'm sure Miss Bianca will be happy to see you then," Peggy said politely.

"How is the wee babe?" she asked Erica.

"Not happy," Erica admitted.

"May I?" Peggy asked, ignoring Jack as she held out her hands for the baby.

Erica sighed and passed Sasha to their housekeeper.

"Corvina, set the table please," Peggy said over her shoulder.

Erica glanced over at Corvina and was taken aback by the cold look on the other woman's face.

"Such a beauty, but so temperamental you are," Peggy said to the baby as she rocked her in her arms. Sasha gazed up at Peggy intently, but she was quiet, and for that Erica was thankful.

Peggy hummed a tune as she swayed on the terrace with the baby. Erica didn't recognize the song, but it was better than awkward silence considering that Jack was still standing there watching her with an unreadable expression on his face, and Corvina looked utterly miserable.

"You know Little Miss," Peggy said to Sasha, "I think perhaps you may resemble Dimi's Aunt Evgeniya."

"Do you think so?" Erica asked.

"Mmm… it's hard to say. So hard to tell when they're so little like this, but maybe. There's something about her that looks very familiar to me. I can't quite place it. An old picture I saw at Vadzel - one of Dimi's relatives."

Erica raised her chin defiantly at Jack and arched an eyebrow at him. She knew her expression conveyed her point when he pushed out a hard breath and turned away from her, Peggy and Sasha.

"Mommy! Mommy! I jumped the fence by the hunting lodge!" Bianca squealed as she came running onto the terrace then, Dimitri behind her, both still clad in English riding attire.

"You did what? Bianca that fence is far too high for you to jump!" Erica exclaimed in surprise as she hugged her daughter.

"No it isn't. I did it, didn't I, Dimitri!" Bianca said.

"Yes, you did!" Dimitri said proudly.

He took one look at Erica's worried expression and laughed. "Don't worry – she's a natural. I'm going to ask the stablehand to set up some rails in the paddock by the stables so you can watch her jump."

"Why is Uncle Jack here?" Bianca asked as she stepped back from her mother and looked up at her uncle in hesitation.

"Hi Bianca," Jack said, offering his niece a friendly smile.

A brief but awkward silence followed.

"Well, Bianca, Uncle Jack knew you were in town, and he wanted to come see you," Erica said. She knew her voice sounded a little too bright to be believable.

Bianca looked at Erica and then at Jack. She silently reached over and took Dimitri's gloved hand in her own. Erica sucked in a sharp breath at this gesture. Without saying a single word, Bianca had managed to convey volumes.

Bianca's once-close relationship with her Uncle Jack had been nearly obliterated by Jack and Erica's affair during Erica and Travis' marriage. Her engagement to Dimitri and Jack's marriage to Laurel helped uncle and niece begin to repair some of the damage, as did Jack's unwavering support during Erica's trial and Mona's death.

When Erica and Jack reunited publicly last summer, all of the progress Jack and Bianca had made was quietly wiped away. Bianca was still more or less happy to see her mother during visits, but she stopped returning all phone calls from her Uncle Jack. Erica was in awe of how close Bianca and Dimitri became during their marriage, and their divorce hadn't done anything to damage that relationship. Bianca was one of Dimitri's biggest cheerleaders and his biggest co-conspirator in planning their surprise second wedding, and she'd clearly to ally herself with her stepfather.

Bianca eyed her uncle suspiciously. "It's nice to see you," she said formally.

Jack seemed surprised at the cool reaction.

"I, uh, I brought you a present," he said as he reached for the gift box.

Bianca accepted it with a quiet 'thank you' and opened it as Dimitri slipped an arm around Erica's waist.

"Well, that's perfect!" Dimitri said as Bianca pulled a pair of black leather riding gloves out of the box. "You were just saying that yours were a little bit uncomfortable during our ride."

Bianca smiled this time at Jack as she tried on the gloves.

"Dimitri, will Jackson be joining you and Erica and the girls for brunch?" Peggy asked.

Jack looked at Erica expectantly, and she turned toward her husband instead. She didn't need to look at Dimitri to know that he was not thrilled at the prospect of Jack spending any more time at Wildwind than was absolutely necessary. Her relationship last year with Jack began as a way for her to salve her bruised ego after seeing Dimitri dancing with Kendall at Nexxus in New York City. She'd tried to reunite with Dimitri once he confessed that he was only around Kendall because Anton was his son, but when he found out she'd spent the night with Jack, he stormed out on her. Jack pursued her, and she didn't exactly discourage it. She and Dimitri had caused each other so much pain in the last two years, and Jack's presence was a reminder of that.

"I thought this was our brunch Mommy," Bianca said with a pout. "Just you and Dimitri and Sasha and me."

She looked up at her uncle then. "You know, my sister is named for my Grandma Mona and Dimitri's Grandma Alexandra."

"So I've heard, and it's a beautiful name. Well, Bianca, I certainly don't want to intrude on your plans," Jack said with an apologetic smile that Bianca did not return. "But I would like to spend some time with you if you're up for it. Maybe we could do lunch another day? Or I could take you out for ice cream?"

Bianca shrugged as she sat down at the table. "Maybe."

"Jack was just leaving, Peggy. Corvina can show him out," Dimitri said firmly as he pulled off his gloves and then took Sasha from the housekeeper. The tone of his voice left no room for argument.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Kendall pushed open the door slowly and quietly. In the dim light of the room, her eyes went first to the baby monitor beside the crib. She walked quickly to it and turned it off. Only then did she flip on the light and for the first time really look around Sasha Marick's nursery.

"Looks like something out of a magazine," she said with a shake of her head. "Seriously, could Erica have decorated a more over the top room?"

The crib beside Kendall was an elaborate iron baby bed in a gold finish that looked to her like it had come from the Palace of Versailles. She'd never seen anything quite like it. She reached out and gingerly touched the two-toned cream-colored crib bumper.

"Silk. Figures," she said with a snort. Who in their right mind put a baby to sleep on a bed covered in silk?

She glanced around the room again.

The walls were painted a warm cream color and were adorned with ornately framed paintings depicting scenes from nursery rhymes. The cow jumping over the moon, the cat and the fiddle, and humpty dumpty all had a place in the artwork. Kendall wrinkled her nose. Nursery rhymes somehow seemed so… well, so expected. She'd have thought Erica would pick something more original. Then again, if what Corvina told her was correct, Erica didn't know if she was decorating a nursery for a boy or a girl, so her options must have been fairly limited.

Kendall looked down at the floor. A large pastel-colored rug with animals and the letters of the alphabet on it covered most of the wood floor.

She walked further into the room, to the window that overlooked the terrace. Yes, Erica was still there, lingering over brunch with Dimitri, Bianca and Sasha. Dimitri was walking around the terrace now, holding Sasha. She had no idea what any of them were saying, but from her vantage point, it was clear to see that Bianca was laughing about something. They looked happy, and she was torn between cursing their happiness and wishing she could be a part of it.

"No point in looking at that," she said abruptly as she turned away from the window, intent on studying Sasha's nursery some more.

She rolled her eyes then when she saw the rocking horse. It was clearly not anything Sasha would be using in the near future, but it certainly looked like something out of a child's dream. It was a plush horse with a real leather saddle and bridle – English style of course – mounted onto a beautifully carved wooden rocking base. "Maximillian" was painted onto the wooden base in a swirly gold print. After Dimitri's horse, naturally, she thought.

She gave the horse a slight push and watched it rock gently back and forth before she wandered over to the bureau on the other side of the room. She didn't care about the items inside – it was probably just more of Sasha's expanding wardrobe. On top of the dresser was a tiny pair of crocheted baby booties. She picked them up carefully and examined them. They looked old. For a brief moment she wondered if her grandmother Mona had made those booties for Erica once upon a time or if they'd belonged to someone in Dimitri's family. Beside it was an antique silver baby rattle. The metal was cool to the touch, and it made a light jingling sound when she shook it. She turned it over in her hand to see the 'M' engraved in the silver.

"M for Marick. Of course," she said under her breath as she put it back down.

Behind the rattle and the booties were a series of framed photos. In the center of the bureau in a gold frame was an obviously recent photo of Sasha. Kendall picked it up for a moment and studied the image of her baby sister. Yes, she definitely had Erica's eyes. She was a very pretty baby, despite her lack of hair. Kendall fingered a lock of her own long dark hair. She'd been growing it out since the afternoon Erica invited her to live with her in Linden House. Bianca had long hair, and Erica seemed to keep hers rather long as well, so Kendall abandoned her short bob and let hers grow long too.

She scrutinized the photo a bit longer. "You must have Dimitri's hair, or lack thereof. Poor kid," she scoffed as she put the frame down.

Her eyes misted a bit as she glanced at the next photo: one of Mona Kane Tyler. Mona was the grandmother every kid wanted to have, the type who'd sit and listen to your problems and never tell you that you were horrible or that your dreams were stupid. She could get angry without yelling at you or completely freaking out the way that Erica did.

Kendall touched the edge of the frame gently. "I didn't just lose my mother. I lost you too," she said softly. "You didn't hate me for who I was. You were the only one who loved me for me, until Erica ruined it all."

She blinked back tears and let her hand drop from the photo. No point in getting upset. No point in crying over something she couldn't change. Mona was gone.

She quickly bypassed a photo of Erica and Dimitri and Bianca together at the New Year's Eve wedding, but she lingered over a photo of a very pregnant Erica, taken from the side to show off her baby belly. Her hands were clasped under her belly in a gesture that was both proud and protective. Her face radiated joy.

Kendall glowered then at the photo. There were surely no photos of Erica pregnant with her. Hell, there were likely no moments of joy to even capture. She crossed her arms protectively over her chest and turned around the room again.

In the corner was a wooden rocking chair that looked to be rather old. Someone had added cushions to it in an elegant cream and yellow damask pattern. Kendall wrinkled her nose at all of the gold and cream and champagne-yellow in the room. It reminded her a bit too much of Erica and Dimitri's first wedding.

Still, she crossed the room and sat down in the chair. It creaked in protest as she pulled her knees up toward her chest and put her feet on the edge of the seat. She leaned her head back against the chair and sat silently as she studied Sasha's room.

The nursery was a bit over the top, sure, with the giant rocking horse and the shelves full of children's books and toys, but it was also an absolutely gorgeous room. It was obvious that Erica – or her decorator – had put a lot of time and effort into creating an elegant but tranquil place for the newest member of the family. Every item in this room, from the crib bedding that had no doubt been custom-made to the monogrammed silver rattle, clearly spelled out that this child was wanted, loved, adored even, from the very moment of her conception. The unfairness of it all broke Kendall's heart.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"Hey bro. What's shakin?" Edmund asked as Dimitri made his way into the parlor and poured himself a drink.

Dimitri glanced over at his brother and sister-in-law, both of whom were sprawled out comfortably on the sofa, watching a movie. He took a long sip of his drink before responding.

"Sasha is napping and Erica is upstairs with Bianca," he said.

"I know it's technically happy hour and all that, but you don't normally drink before dinner," Edmund observed.

"It's nothing. I don't want to interrupt your movie," Dimitri said apologetically.

Edmund and Maria exchanged glances and then both sat up as Edmund reached for the remote to pause the film.

"You aren't interrupting," Edmund insisted.

"Really, you aren't," Maria added. "I can go see if Peggy needs any help in the kitchen if you two want to talk."

Dimitri stared down at his glass, swirling the liquor around for a moment as he tried to gather his thoughts.

"Actually, uh, Maria, I wouldn't mind if you stayed," he said finally.

"This sounds serious," Edmund said.

Dimitri took another sip of his drink and paused for a moment.

"I would like to apologize to both of you," he said slowly.

Maria frowned in confusion. "For what?"

"I know that you're both dealing with your own fertility issues, and having a baby in the house can't be easy. But all of the screaming…" he looked down again as if embarrassed. "I knew babies were hard but I didn't quite expect this…"

Edmund shrugged. "Well bro, you have to admit – she's Erica Kane's kid. High strung is just part of the gene pool, right?" he said lightly in an attempt to lesson some of the tension in his older brother.

That got at least a small smile out of Dimitri, but not much else.

"I know the screaming is hard to take, and I'm sorry that we've subjected you to that. Erica did offer, when Sasha was first born, she suggested we move back to Linden for a while, just until everyone adjusted, but I pushed for us to stay here at Wildwind, and if we've overstayed our welcome, I want you to just tell me," he said.

"Dimitri this is your home," Maria pointed out.

"My wife's right – my name may be on the deed, but you grew up here too, and this is just as much your home as it is ours. Sasha should be here, and so should you and Erica," Edmund agreed.

"I just don't know what to do. I don't know how long it can go on like this," Dimitri said quietly.

"Why not hire a nanny?" Edmund asked. "I mean, you have to at some point anyway, right? Erica's not going to stay home forever is she?"

"No, no of course not. I assume at some point she'll go back to work, but she's not ready to interview nannies," Dimitri said. "I did suggest it yesterday morning before I took Bianca riding, and she damn near took my head off."

"That sounds like Erica," Edmund mused.

"What about a baby nurse?" Maria asked.

"What do you mean?" Dimitri replied.

"Not a long-term nanny, per se, but someone who specializes in newborn care, who could work for you overnight for a few weeks just to help get Sasha onto a schedule and give you and Erica both a break so you can actually sleep," Maria suggested. "I'm sure nanny agencies could recommend some, and actually I know of at least one nurse in PVH's newborn nursery who has done work like that for families before."

Dimitri took another sip of his drink as he pondered Maria's suggestion.

"I'm not sure how I'd bring it up with Erica. She's a little, well, she gets upset easily lately," he said delicately.

"Look, you love this woman, right?" Edmund asked.

"As much as I love that gorgeous baby who won't stop screaming," Dimitri said wryly.

"Then tell her that you're suggesting the baby nurse because you love her and Sasha both and you only want what's best for them," Edmund suggested.

"You think that will work?"

Edmund laughed. "Oh I think she's going to rip you a new one, but she'll eventually realize you're right. You two fight like cats and dogs and then you make up. It's what you do."

Dimitri tossed back the rest of his drink and shook his head at Edmund.

"Maybe you're both right."

He turned on his heel, intent on heading to his office to look into the possibility of hiring a baby nurse, when Edmund stopped him.

"Hey bro?"

"Yes?"

"I realize this is none of my business, so feel free to tell me to butt out," Edmund said, "but how are things going with Kendall and Bianca being in the same house?"

Dimitri sighed then. "I may need another drink for that conversation."


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Edmund and Maria both waited patiently for Dimitri to pour himself another glass of scotch. He then sank into a nearby chair with a heavy sigh.

"Erica and Kendall and Bianca… it's a disaster waiting to happen," he admitted.

Everyone was silent for a moment as Edmund and Maria waited for him to continue.

"During Bianca's last visit, before Sasha was born, I paid for Anton to take a vacation, a trip to the Adirondacks. He took Kendall with him, of course. He knew I was trying to get her away from Erica and Bianca, and he understood," Dimitri said quietly.

Edmund nodded. "He's a good guy. Just has lousy taste in women."

Dimitri shot his brother a warning glance.

"Go on," Edmund said with a wave of his hand.

"That worked because it was summer and Anton didn't have school. He's back in class right now, and he can't take off to wander the country with Kendall, and you know how Kendall is. If I offered her a free trip somewhere just to get her out of the house, she'd never take it," Dimitri said.

"You're right about that. She'd throw it back in your face just to piss you and Erica off," Edmund acknowledged.

"I'm piling as much work on her as I possibly can, keeping her as busy as I possibly can, but I couldn't come up with any kind of a legitimate business trip to send her on – I can't risk her screwing up my company," Dimitri said, "But Bianca is supposed to be here for a while, and it's inevitable that Kendall is going to cross paths with Bianca, and when she does, it's not going to be pretty."

"What does Erica say? I mean, surely she's talked to Bianca about Kendall living in the servants' quarters," Maria said.

Dimitri sighed again and took a sip of his drink.

"Erica refuses to discuss it."

"That sounds…unwise," Maria said as tactfully as possible.

"I know, but there's just no reasoning with Erica about anything," he admitted. "I know my wife, and I love my wife, but lately I'm not sure I recognize the woman upstairs with my daughter."

Edmund watched as a pained expression crossed his brother's face.

"What do you mean?" he asked seriously.

"I don't know what I mean," Dimitri admitted. "None of this is what I expected. Erica is… I hate to say paranoid, but that's the best word I can come up with on this little sleep. It's debatable who sleeps less at night – Sasha or Erica. Even when Sasha does finally sleep, I'll wake up and find Erica just staring at her, watching her breathe. She says she's afraid that she'll stop breathing. She's terrified of SIDS."

Maria nodded. "I think SIDS is certainly a top fear for many new parents. Few things are scarier than the idea that your baby might just suddenly stop breathing for no reason."

"It's more than that. She's terrified in general that something bad is going to happen to Sasha. She doesn't like leaving Wildwind with her for fear of germs, which limits my options in keeping Kendall and Bianca apart. She's afraid Sasha might stop breathing. She's afraid that there's something seriously wrong with Sasha because of how she reacts during bottle feedings."

"Wait – how does she react?" Maria asked.

"Sasha will start a bottle and drink from it like everything is fine, but then she'll pull away and stiffen in your arms and scream as if you're torturing her," Dimitri said.

Maria frowned. "Does she do this all the time?"

"No, not every bottle, but it seems to be getting worse. Do you have any idea what it could be?" he asked.

"Well, I'm really not the right person to ask," Maria admitted. "I'm a doctor, but I'm not a pediatrician. I suppose it's possible that she has an allergy to the formula you're using. Or maybe there's something in the water that you're using to mix the formula?"

"She's gaining weight, so the pediatrician doesn't want to change anything about her feeding schedule or even the type of formula we're using. We've switched to using only distilled water for the bottles, but I can't tell if that makes a difference or not."

"Does she spit up a lot?" Maria asked.

Dimitri shook his head. "No, she doesn't, thank goodness. The only thing that could possibly make all of this more stressful would be both Erica and me covered in baby puke."

Edmund snorted at his brother's comment.

"Like I said, I'm not a pediatrician, but if she were spitting up I'd think food allergy. Since she's not, I'm not sure," Maria admitted. "But if your pediatrician isn't responsive to your concerns, then perhaps you should consider finding a new one. I'd be happy to ask around at the hospital for recommendations."

"I appreciate it, but I don't dare suggest to Erica that there's something wrong with her choice in pediatricians," Dimitri said with a shake of his head.

Edmund leaned forward on the sofa and studied his brother for a moment.

"You're really worried about Erica, aren't you? This isn't just a 'let me vent and get this off my chest' kind of thing, is it?" Edmund asked.

Dimitri put his glass down on the side table and rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"Yes, I really am worried about Erica," he said, "Because I think a lot of this is my fault."

Maria, as if sensing the heightened tension in her brother-in-law, offered her husband an understanding glance. "I'm going to see if I can help Peggy with dinner. Dimitri, please let me know if you would like me to ask around at the hospital for any recommendations for doctors or baby nurses. And really, please don't worry about how we're doing – we're fine. Babies cry, and we'll all get through it."

Dimitri looked up at Maria in surprise as she stood.

"Thank you. I appreciate it," he said sincerely. He waited for her to leave before he leaned back in his chair and sighed again.

"So what makes you think this is all your fault?" Edmund asked.

"Erica worked so hard, through her whole pregnancy, to reassure Bianca that we loved her, that our having a baby wouldn't change how we feel about her, to try to ease some of her insecurities," Dimitri began.

Edmund nodded. "Right. I remember. But it seems like this visit is going well, isn't it?"

"So far," Dimitri admitted. "Erica was a nervous wreck before Travis showed up. He's…I don't know what to think about him. I know he loves Bianca, but sometimes I feel like he's just looking for a reason to get angry with Erica."

"She did sleep with his brother while they were married," Edmund pointed out.

"Oh believe me, I know. I know all about hating Jackson Montgomery. Believe me," Dimitri said as he stood and paced slowly around the room.

"I heard he was here today," Edmund said carefully, wondering if Jack was the source of Dimitri's stress.

"Yes, he came by to see Bianca, who didn't seem all that interested in spending time with him," Dimitri said.

"Kid's loyal to her father. No surprise there. Plus she loves you," Edmund said.

"I know, but that's not where I was going."

He looked at Edmund with a guilty expression on his face.

"Our visits with Bianca have gone so well this year, starting with the wedding. She's happy here, she's closer than ever to Erica and me. She cries when she has to leave. We get calls from her all the time asking when she can come back. Erica was so worked up over Travis actually coming here to Wildwind to drop Bianca off. She's always worried he's going to find some reason to hate her, some reason to try to yank Bianca away from her," Dimitri said.

"Like Kendall living here," Edmund said sharply, ignoring his brother's glare.

"I told Erica that if the visits with Bianca continued to go well, that if we could show that she and Sasha are very close and we're a very happy, normal family, then perhaps we could make a good case to a judge to get joint custody and more time with Bianca," Dimitri said. "Or maybe even full custody if Bianca really wants to live here."

Edmund stared at him for a long moment.

"You did what?"

"You heard me."

"Let me get this straight," Edmund said. "You told your wife – a woman who'd just given birth and is probably massively hormonal – that if she could manage to juggle this visit with Bianca and keep Bianca and Kendall apart and keep Bianca and Sasha both happy that you'd go to court with her to try to get custody of Bianca? All the while knowing that Sasha doesn't sleep well, doesn't eat well and screams all the time AND that the woman Erica and Bianca hate more than anyone else on the planet is living here in this house, married to your long-lost son?"

"It really didn't sound that bad in my head," Dimitri said crossly.

"And now that's heaped on top of Erica's postpartum hormones and is turning her into an anxiety-ridden wreck?"

Dimitri took a sip of his drink and nodded ever so slightly. "I'm afraid so."

"Jesus. What the hell were you thinking?"

"Clearly I wasn't. I was trying to make my wife happy. I know how much she loves Bianca, how much she'd love to have her with us more often."

"And Bianca has no idea that Kendall is living here? Or that she's married to Anton?" Edmund asked for clarification.

"None. I've tried to bring it up with Erica, but she doesn't want to talk about it," he replied. "Shortly after we came home from the hospital with Sasha, Anton came over to congratulate us. He and I were talking – he even held Sasha. Edmund, I don't know that I've ever been more proud, having both of my children in the same room together like that."

Edmund nodded. "And then Kendall ruined it?"

"Of course," Dimitri said bitterly. "I was right there with Sasha. I took her back from Anton the moment Kendall walked into the room. She never even laid a hand on my daughter, but when Erica came back in, when she saw Kendall there in the same room with Sasha, she completely lost it."

"Given everything that's happened, I can understand Erica's reluctance to have Kendall anywhere near Sasha," Edmund acknowledged.

"I know. Believe me, I know," Dimitri said. "But Edmund, I was RIGHT THERE. I wasn't going to let anything happen to Sasha. Do you have any idea how much I love that little girl?"

"I've got an inkling," Edmund said with a smile.

"I would never let anyone harm Sasha. I told Erica, I warned her before Sasha was born, that we'd have to deal with Kendall, that she'd want to at least meet the baby because whether we like it or not, they are biological half-siblings." Dimitri said.

"Right. Then again, you know full well how difficult the sibling relationship has been with Kendall and Bianca," Edmund reminded his brother.

"I know, and Erica has every right to hate the person Kendall has become. She has every right to want to keep Kendall away from Bianca and Sasha, just as Kendall has every right to want to try to mend fences and over time perhaps get to know her new sister," Dimitri said. "I knew it would be a damn near impossible situation. I just thought it I could plan some of it, if Erica and I could talk out how we were going to handle Kendall, we'd all feel much better about it."

Edmund shook his head as he pondered the situation. "And Erica won't talk about it."

"Not talking about it is how Erica handles a lot of things, and it's not good," Dimitri admitted.

"Like you're such a big fan of therapy or talking out your problems? Come on Dimitri, you're just as bad as she is."

"You're not helping," Dimitri glowered.

"So Bianca has no clue Kendall is living here, married to Anton? Or that Anton is your son?" Edmund asked quietly.

"No, she doesn't," Dimitri said as he took another sip of his drink. "If we could just tell her, it would make everything much simpler because she'd understand why Kendall is here, why we haven't just thrown her and Anton out."

"You don't think she can keep that kind of a secret, about Anton?" Edmund asked.

Dimitri shook his head. "I don't know, and it doesn't matter because I'd never do that to her. I'd never put that kind of pressure on her and expect her to keep that kind of secret. She's just a little girl, and she's been through enough in her life already. I can't tell Bianca the truth unless I'm willing to tell Anton, and I promised Corvina I wouldn't."

"You've got to talk to Erica about this. I don't see any other option here. You guys need to sit Bianca down and at least explain that Anton lives her and so does Kendall because they're married," Edmund said.

"I know," Dimitri conceded. "I just don't want to upset Erica even more. I'm worried about her."

"You don't think she has some sort of post-partum depressive something or other, do you?" Edmund asked.

"I don't know. I don't know what to think anymore," Dimitri admitted. "I've got a baby who screams all the time and doesn't sleep. I've got a stepdaughter I want to be happy and to enjoy her time here. I come back from a ride with Bianca to find Jackson Montgomery of all people standing there talking my wife and bringing presents to Bianca to try to make nice. I have a son I can't claim as my own, who is married to the woman who nearly cost me my life. I have a wife who cries at the drop of a hat, who panics over everything, and who doesn't sleep any more than our baby does. It's just a matter of time before it all blows up in my face, and I don't know that there's a damn thing I can do about it."


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

It was almost 8pm when Kendall made her way back to the servants' quarters to the small apartment she shared with Anton and Corvina. She'd abandoned her work long enough to check out Sasha's nursery, knowing Erica and Dimitri were otherwise occupied. She hadn't expected the room – and the sight of Bianca enjoying her time with her family – to affect her as it had. Once she fled the nursery and dried her tears, it had taken all of her efforts to at least make a dent in the volume of work Dimitri had piled on her.

The door was unlocked and most of the lights were off when Kendall entered the apartment.

"Anton? Corvina?" she asked in a small voice.

"Anton eesnot here."

Corvina's voice sounded odd to Kendall, and she frowned as she fumbled for a light switch.

"Where is he?" she asked.

"At a group shtudy for medi-call school," Corvina replied.

"Study group," Kendall corrected as she flipped on the light switch. She was surprised to see her sister-in-law seated alone at the small table in the kitchen, an open bottle beside her and a glass in her hand.

"Are you… drunk?" Kendall asked slowly.

"If I am not, I will be verrry soon," Corvina said stonily. The combination of her normally clipped Hungarian accent and the slurring of speech from alcohol had merged to create a mishmash of language that Kendall had to strain to understand.

"Okay," Kendall said slowly. "Do you want to tell me why you're drunk at 8pm? Or why you're drunk period?"

She glanced around the apartment, expecting to see chaos of some kind but it was tidy as usual. Where the hell was Anton? He really should be the one taking care of his drunken sister. This was so NOT her responsibility. She folded her arms across her chest and eyed Corvina.

Corvina looked up then as if she was somehow surprised to see Kendall.

"Come. Seet," she said firmly, gesturing to the table. "You shoould hav'a drink."

Kendall approached the table and watched in irritation as Corvina pushed herself up from her seat and stumbled to the cabinet for another glass.

"No, no, no!" Kendall said quickly, crossing the last few steps to Corvina. "I can get my own glass. Don't worry. Sit back down." The last thing she needed was for Corvina to start dropping glasses all over the counter and the floor.

Corvina looked at Kendall for a moment as if she didn't recognize her but then flopped back into her chair. Kendall slowly reached for a glass and debated just how drunk her sister-in-law was. 'Would she notice if I just filled this with water?' Kendall wondered.

Then again, maybe a drink was just what she needed. No one had even told her Bianca was coming for a visit. She'd had to discover that on her own. No one bothered to tell her anything, it seemed. Then, witnessing the happy scene on the terrace, seeing the luxurious nursery Erica and Dimitri had created for their beloved new baby – it was all too much for one person to bear.

Kendall sat down at the table across from Corvina. "What are you drinking?" she asked.

Corvina clumsily refilled her own glass and then pushed the bottle across the table toward Kendall, who had to react quickly to grab it and keep it from toppling over and spilling.

"It is _kecskeméti barackpálinka_," the older woman replied.

"What?"

Corvina didn't respond, and Kendall hoped her sister-in-law wasn't too far gone to remember that only one person at this table understood Hungarian.

Kendall picked up the bottle and eyed the label warily. Hungarian. Just great. She had absolutely no idea what this stuff was, but the liquid inside was the color of a light white wine, and the picture of a piece of fruit on the label seemed at least somewhat reassuring. She raised the open bottle to her face and took a cautious sniff. She could smell fruit… peach maybe? Or perhaps apricot? And of course the strong scent of alcohol. It didn't smell like the scotch Dimitri drank, and it smelled sweeter than Erica's preferred white wine. She shrugged. Might as well have a drink. After today, why not?

She poured a tiny amount into her own glass and raised it to her lips.

"Drink. Might aswell drink. Noh-sing worth staying sob-her," Corvina slurred.

Kendall took a small sip, but one sip was enough to make her cough and her eyes water. The unfamiliar alcohol was sweet but absurdly strong. She wiped her mouth and waited for a rude comment from Corvina, but none came. Corvina was staring mournfully into her own glass. Kendall glanced at the half-empty bottle. Dear God, if Corvina had gone through half a bottle already, it was a miracle she was still conscious!

"What the hell is that?" Kendall gasped.

"Ees palinka," Corvina said. "Ees a speyshul drink in my country."

"Okay…" Kendall said slowly as she pushed her glass away. There was no way she was drinking that. Clearly it was an acquired taste.

"You want to tell me why you're completely sloshed at 8 pm?" she asked.

Corvina looked confused. "What ees slosh-ed?"

"Drunk. Why are you drunk?" Kendall asked in irritation. God, Anton had better get home and soon before she lost her mind. He owed her big time for this.

Corvina raised her glass in an unsteady hand and took a large sip. Then she placed it down on the table hard enough that some of the liquor sloshed over the edge of the glass and onto the table. Kendall was about to comment on this atypical untidiness of Corvina's when the older woman gave her a hard stare and spoke again.

"Erica Kane is a sselfeeesh, self-searhving ssshrew," she spit out.

Kendall raised an eyebrow. "You're just now figuring that out? What? Did the Mistress of Wildwind refuse to change the Golden Child's diapers or something and make you do it?"

"Dimeetri ees a GOOD man," Corvina said, her eyes focused on some point in the distance and not on Kendall. "He deesserves SO much beytter. She STABBED heem!"

Kendall rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know. SHE stabbed him, and it's all my fault. She's the crazy one, and I'm the one who gets all the blame," she said in what she hoped was a sarcastic tone of voice.

Corvina ignored Kendall and continued with her own heavily-accented, slurred rant.

"Why does he put up wis her? I do not understand dis. Why? I have been so kind to heem. I give heem so much. He does not notice. He does not see me. All he sees is that weetch!"

Kendall sighed. She wasn't sure if she wanted to tell Corvina to shut up, that she couldn't handle hearing anymore about Erica, or if she wanted to cheer the older woman on. It was so rare to find anyone in this damned town who didn't think the world of Erica Kane. God, if only Erica had been willing to really love her, to really accept her as her daughter. Every door in Pine Valley would have been opened for her. The world on a silver platter would have been hers for the taking.

"I don't know what he sees in her either, but now that they've got their royal titled heir, he'll never be rid of her," Kendall said bitterly. "Erica has plenty of money but a title? Please. She'd probably only be willing to leave him for a Prince or a King."

"Heir!" Corvina scoffed. "Heir. Sssuch nonsense!"

Kendall shrugged. "I know. It's America. We're supposed to be above all that royalty garbage, but Princess Diana does something, and we all rush out to read about it in the tabloids. It's kind of pathetic when you think about it," she mused.

Corvina looked at Kendall in confusion.

"Titles mean absolutely nothing here, but it's like this really big deal if you marry some obscure European royalty and get one somehow. As if being Erica Kane isn't fabulous enough already. No, it's not enough to have money and fame and glamour and beauty and a career. No, she gets to be a freaking Countess too! God I hate to see how spoiled and horrible that baby is going to be. Bianca's bad enough, and she doesn't have a title," Kendall continued.

"Erica ees an embahreesment to royalty," Corvina said. "Dimeetri's fahser would be SO deesappointed zat he mahried a woman like Erica Kane."

Kendall nodded. She was beginning to feel less resentful that her husband had left her alone to deal with Corvina. In the past, she'd sensed a quiet disdain for Erica in Anton's sister, but she hadn't realized just how much Corvina hated the woman. 'I may need to get you drunk more often,' Kendall thought as she lifted her g lass and pretended to take a sip of the vile fruity concoction. Anyone who was willing to rant about Erica was a great drinking partner as far as she was concerned.

"She ees a common tahrt. A ho-hoar," Corvina mumbled into her glass.

Kendall frowned in discomfort. It was one thing to rant about how demanding or obnoxious Erica could be, but calling her a whore? That seemed a little much. She wasn't sure what made her more uncomfortable: Corvina calling Erica a whore or Kendall feeling the instinctive urge to want to defend her mother.

"Well, I know she's been down the aisle more than a few times, but then again, so has Elizabeth Taylor, and she's still the Queen of Hollywood or whatever," Kendall said dismissively. It was a half-hearted defense of Erica, she knew, but she couldn't muster much more than that, not tonight. Hell, Erica probably wouldn't even want her defense.

"You defend her? Ahfter what she has done to Dimeetri?" Corvina was aghast.

"Yeah, she stabbed him. I know. I was there. Post-traumatic stress disorder and all that," Kendall said, "But come on, Dimitri is a grown man. Bad taste in women aside, if he's crazy enough to want to marry her again after all of that, then they deserve each other."

"He ees a good man. A decent man. He ees soo kind, so cohm-passsshionate to othersss," Corvina mumbled, "And he has no idea, no idea zat she ees playing heem for a FOOL!"

Kendall turned her attention back toward Anton's sister. Erica playing Dimitri for a fool? What?

"What do you mean she's playing him for a fool?" Kendall asked.

Corvina swayed in her chair, and for a moment Kendall thought she might fall over onto the floor. The older woman placed a steadying hand on the table and stared down at her glass. The look on her face was a mixture of sadness and disgust.

"Hees preshus HEIR, hees baby Countess – she ees not even hees daugh-tur!" she slurred.

_Author's Note: If you've never seen Corvina on All My Children, you may want to watch a few clips of her online to get the full affect of her accent, especially if how I've written her words in this chapter makes no sense to you. Also Palinka is a brandy distilled with fruit that is made almost exclusively in Hungary. I've never had it, so if you're a connoisseur my apologies if I described the taste incorrectly. _


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Kendall stared at Corvina, unblinking, unable to speak. Sasha was not Dimitri's daughter? What? How? When? None of this made any sense to her.

"What…what do you mean Sasha isn't Dimitri's daughter?" she stammered when she finally found her voice. "How is that even possible?"

Corvina downed the remainder of her drink and motioned for Kendall to pass the bottle back. Kendall looked at the bottle with a wary eye. She couldn't imagine Corvina drinking more and still remaining conscious. As it was, she was already worried Corvina might fall onto the floor at any second.

"I don't know that you need more. Tell me what you mean – about Sasha not being Dimitri's daughter," Kendall said.

"Give me zhe bottle!" Corvina said in irritation.

"Let me pour," Kendall replied. She didn't want to have to clean up after Corvina when she inevitably spilled more of this fruity Hungarian alcohol.

Corvina acquiesced, so Kendall poured a small amount into the glass and hoped her sister-in-law wouldn't complain.

"Tell me about Sasha," Kendall repeated.

Corvina took a sip with a shaky hand.

"Zhat baybee…I do not believe she is Dimeetri's," Corvina said slowly.

Kendall glared at Corvina. She didn't BELIEVE? Who cared what Corvina believed! She was about to respond when Corvina continued.

"I overhey-ard her today, on the terrace. Jackson Montgoh-merr-ey was here. He says she is HEES baby."

"Jack? Jack thinks Sasha is his baby?"

"Mmmhmm," Corvina mumbled into her drink.

"Are he and Erica having an affair? Why would Erica do that?" Kendall asked.

Her mind raced with possibilities. Jack had proposed to Erica, and she'd accepted. Kendall had seen the magazine covers – Erica in a wedding dress and absurdly Miss America-esque tiara, standing on a fashion show runway with Jack on bended knee, proposing marriage. Her first though upon seeing the photos was that it was ridiculously unfair that Erica was clearly not going to end up alone. In the weeks following the fashion show engagement, Kendall spent far more time than she was comfortable admitting wondering what this new engagement meant – should she breathe a sigh of relief that Dimitri and Erica were really through? Had the universe really been that kind to her? How was Dimitri coping with this news? Should she say anything to him? What would Bianca think? Would Bianca really be okay with her mother marrying her uncle? Maybe Erica's marriage to Jackson would be a double whammy and she'd lose both Dimitri and Bianca.

How Erica ended up with Dimitri again was something Kendall did not understand. How did it happen, and so quickly? One minute she was engaged to Jack and the next back with Dimitri. Kendall could still remember feeling her stomach drop when she walked into Janet's botched wedding to Trevor and saw Erica on Dimitri's arm. She could still remember her shock and anger when she went to Pine Valley Hospital to visit Del Henry before his kidney transplant and overheard Erica and Dimitri discussing their upcoming wedding. God that woman moved fast! Kendall still wasn't sure whether to feel disgust or grudging admiration over how quickly Erica managed to draw Dimitri back into her web and back into another marriage.

And to think that she was risking it all with an affair with Jackson Montgomery! Kendall mulled it over in her head a bit longer. She'd read all of the tabloid stories about Erica's affair with Jack during her marriage to his brother. How could Erica do that to her husband, to her daughter? It was disgusting, despicable even, and yet, somewhere, deep down, in places she didn't like to acknowledge even existed in her, Kendall couldn't help but be in awe - and a little bit envious - of Erica's ability to make men fall in love with her, to inspire men to do such enormously risky, stupid things just for the chance to be with her.

"Are Erica and Jack having an affair?" Kendall asked again.

Corvina shook her head slightly. "I do not think so. Not now," she said slowly. "But he says that they were too-geys-er, when she and Dimeetri decided to get remarried. I hey-ard him. I hey-ard him say that Sasha looks like heem! He insists she is HEES daughter!"

Kendall let this information sink in. Jack and Erica were together, intimately so, either right before Erica reconciled with Dimitri. There may have even been an overlapping period in which Erica was seeing both men.

"What did Erica say?" Kendall asked. If only she'd been there in Corvina's place! If only she'd been able to overhear the conversation herself!

"Oh she denies it, of course," Corvina slurred. "She convinced heem to leave. She sswore zhat baby was Dimeetri's."

"Do you think Dimitri has any clue?" Kendall asked with a frown. She couldn't imagine Dimitri willingly raising Jackson Montgomery's baby and pretending it was his own, but then again, Dimitri seemed pretty taken with Bianca. Once upon a time he'd seemed pretty taken with her too. Once upon a time, he'd treated her with respect and kindness. He'd treated her like Erica Kane's daughter.

Kendall sighed. "Who am I kidding? Dimitri remarried Erica after she plunged a letter opener into his chest and left him to bleed to death on the floor of the hunting lodge. If he'd take her back after that, surely an "Oops, it's not really your baby" is no big deal," she said in a voice dripping with bitterness.

Corvina shook her head angrily. "Dimeetri has NO IDEA! He is sssso blind to zhat woman!

"I know. It's disgusting," Kendall agreed.

Both women were silent for a moment. Corvina took another sip of her drink and Kendall pretended to drink hers.

"Do you think Jack believed Erica, when she said Sasha wasn't his?" Kendall asked.

Corvina placed her elbow on the table and her head in her hand.

"He leyft here after she talked to heem."

"Was he angry?"

"Sad."

Jack thought Erica might be hiding her baby's true paternity, and he left Wildwind looking sad? Kendall pondered that for a moment before the obvious hit her.

"He's still in love with her," she said suddenly.

"She is a ssselfish weetch!" Corvina slurred. "Why would he love her?"

"I don't know. Why would Dimitri love her after she stabbed him? But he does. Jack must still love her too. Most men would probably be thrilled to be off the hook when it comes to knocking up some woman."

"Off zhe hook?" Corvina asked in confusion.

"Not responsible," Kendall explained. "She's married to someone else, a very wealthy someone else, someone who could drag out a custody fight for years or simply up and move the family to Hungary. No man in his right mind would want get caught up in that, fighting with Erica and Dimitri over that baby, but if what you say is correct, that's exactly what Jack wants."

She paused for a moment.

"Do you think that's what Jack wants? Based on what you overheard, do you think Jack was hoping to find out Sasha was his?" Kendall asked.

Corvina sighed and looked melancholy.

"He says she has hees hair, that she looks like heem, that when she was born, it was zhe right time for her to be hees daughter," Corvina said. "If she is hees daughter, he wants to be a father to hees child. He wants to know zhe truth."

Corvina closed her eyes after that, still leaning into her hand, and Kendall assumed she was trying to mentally will away the image of Erica and Jack's argument.

Kendall took all of this in. Jack and Erica were still sleeping together around the time Erica got pregnant. Obviously Dimitri believed the baby to be his, so he had to have been sleeping with her as well. Whatever load of bull Erica had said to Jack today he obviously bought if he left Wildwind looking sad instead of angry.

"I want to know the truth too," Kendall said.

She was already debating their options, pondering how they could possibly get to the bottom of this mystery, and how she could use this information to her benefit. She wondered if Corvina would help her. Her sister-in-law seemed like an unlikely ally, but clearly the older woman hated Erica and wasn't supportive of her remarriage to Dimitri. Yes, Corvina might be willing to help her. She wondered for a moment if her sister-in-law had a bit of a crush on her boss. That might explain her hatred for Erica and her loyalty to Dimitri.

"We're going to get to the bottom of this, Corvina, you and me," she said.

Corvina's head fell forward then, and her elbow slipped out from under her, sending her crashing face first into the table. She didn't move. Kendall startled at this and then sighed in irritation.

"Yes, we'll get to the bottom of this alright, just as soon as you sleep off a massive hangover," she said dryly.


	19. Chapter 19

_Author's Note: Thank you for the continued PM's about this story. I'm glad so many are enjoying it! _

Chapter 19

"Mommy, I want you to get in the water!"

Erica watched as Bianca splashed and swam in Wildwind's indoor pool.

"Bianca, that looks far too cold for me," Erica said.

"It's not! Dimitri had the staff turn the heater on yesterday, just for me, so it would be nice and warm! It's really nice. You should get in!"

Erica frowned. She didn't really want to explain the particulars of childbirth and exactly why putting on a bathing suit and going for a swim was not exactly practical or reasonable a mere few weeks after giving birth.

"Sweetheart, I'm going to stay out here on dry land, but you swim. You can practice your dives. I bet you've improved so much since you were here during the summer!" she said, motioning toward the deep end of the pool.

Bianca sulked in response.

"This is BORING by myself," she complained.

Erica glanced back toward the door. Dimitri had promised to join Bianca for a swim, but he'd been stuck on business calls with overseas investors most of the morning.

"You have rafts, you have pool toys. It's perfectly fine," Erica replied.

"Why won't you swim with me?" Bianca repeated with a pout.

"Why don't I sit here on the edge, and I'll put my feet in the water. Would that make you happy?" Erica asked as she kicked off her shoes and walked to the edge of the pool. She sat down carefully and dangled her legs in the water, grateful that she was wearing a dress. The water really did feel lovely.

"No, it doesn't make me happy. I want you to swim with me," Bianca complained.

"Sasha might need me," Erica pointed out.

Bianca glared at her mother and slapped her arm down hard on the surface of the water, splashing Erica.

"Bianca!" Erica gasped and instinctively leaned away from her daughter. "Why did you do that?"

"It's all about SASHA!" Bianca said in irritation. "You can't do anything fun because SASHA might need you!"

"Sasha is just a tiny baby honey, and babies need a lot of attention," Erica said gently. "Do you remember how we talked about that at your last visit? That Mommy loves you more than anything else in the world, but that babies require a lot of time and attention, and that I'm not going to be able to just rush over and do whatever you want to do when you want to do it?"

"So put Sasha in the pool too. You can hold her in the water," Bianca said.

Erica forced a smile at her daughter. "No darling, I can't. Sasha is far too young to go in a swimming pool. But by next spring, I'm sure she'd love to go in the water with you. We'll get a special baby raft for her, and you can swim all around the pool with her."

Bianca was not impressed. "I don't care. I'm bored NOW."

…...

Kendall stood just outside the doors to the solarium, listening to Bianca whine about being bored.

"Looks like I haven't missed much," she muttered under her breath. Bianca Montgomery was just as spoiled as she'd always been.

Kendall sighed in frustration. Anton had been underfoot enough that she'd been unable to pump Corvina for more information after her sister-in-law's drunken confessional, and she'd been swamped with so much work lately that she'd been unable to slip away to catch another glimpse of Sasha Marick. Then fate intervened: Dimitri was trying to manage some European stock crisis, and he'd been on the phone with investors off and on all morning. He'd finally shooed her from the office, giving her the first bit of free time she'd had in weeks.

She'd listened in on Erica and Bianca's conversation, hoping to hear some tidbit about Jackson Montgomery. Surely he'd be back to visit his niece. Perhaps Bianca might ask about him. If what Corvina overheard was true, if Sasha might really be Jack's daughter and not Dimitri's, then she had the potential to blow Erica completely out of the water. A gift of information, scandalous information, rarely fell into her lap like this, and she needed to figure out how to best utilize it.

She soon tired of Bianca's complaints and abandoned the pool area to go in search of Corvina. She eventually found her sister-in-law sitting in the formal dining room, slowly polishing piece after piece of sterling silverware with a dour expression on her face.

"Just who I wanted to see," she said in a friendly voice as she closed the door behind her.

"Kendall. What do you want?" Corvina asked suspiciously.

Kendall pulled out a chair and sat down beside her sister-in-law.

"I want to talk about Jackson Montgomery," she said, waiting for any flicker of memory to cross Corvina's face.

"So you DO remember what you said to me the other night," she said triumphantly when a sick expression crossed Corvina's face.

"I cannot believe she would do such a thing to Dimitri," Corvina said in disgust.

"It's Erica. What wouldn't she do?" Kendall said bitterly. "The question is, what do WE do about it?"

Corvina looked at Kendall in surprise. "What can we do?"

"Well, we can't tell Dimitri, that's for sure," Kendall said.

"Why not? He deserves to know that his wife may have lied to him! He deserves to know what a witch she is!" Corvina said angrily.

"Because he'd never believe us, especially not me. Even if he confronted Erica, she'd just deny it, and then Erica would blame us," Kendall said with a frown.

Corvina pondered this for a moment. "Could you talk to Jackson? Do you think he would say anything?"

Kendall shook her head. "Not to me. He hates me. At least Dimitri gave me a chance, at least he was willing to accept me as Erica's daughter. Jackson never really did that, and he was part of Erica's defense team during her trial. It's pathetic really – he's like her lapdog, jumping to do her bidding. If he left here willingly, it's because he bought whatever tale she spun. You'd think he'd at least want proof. Some lawyer he is," she scoffed.

Corvina thought about it for a moment and looked as if she was about to respond when a baby's shrill cry cut through the quiet of the dining room.

"Dear GOD that kid has a set of lungs on her!" Kendall cringed. "What are they doing to that poor child?"

A nervous-looking Lucy appeared in the doorway to the dining room moments later, holding Sasha.

"Mr. Marick is on an overseas call, and I can't calm Miss Sasha. Do either of you know where Mrs. Marick is?" Lucy asked as she attempted to soothe Sasha, who was clutching a handful of the maid's uniform in her tiny fist as she screamed.

Corvina raised an eyebrow at Lucy. Kendall bit her bottom lip as she looked at the baby. Sasha looked miserably unhappy. For a brief moment, she thought about offering to hold her baby sister. She'd barely even gotten a glance at Sasha before Dimitri and Erica snatched her away before. Part of her wanted to offer to take the baby - a part of her was dying to know if she could soothe Sasha, if Sasha would sense that they were somehow related and would be comforted by the presence of her sister. Plus there would be the added benefit of being able to study her sister's face in close detail to see if she could recognize any features that reminded her of either Dimitri or Jack.

Then again, she'd never spent much time around babies and had absolutely no idea what to do with one, so the thought that she could somehow magically calm Sasha's cries was pretty laughable. Plus with her miserable luck as soon as she got her hands on Sasha, Erica would inevitably show up to yell at her and accuse her of all sorts of horrible misdeeds.

"Erica's in the pool with Bianca," Kendall finally said.

Lucy nodded gratefully and departed with the baby, and Kendall slumped down in her chair.

"That woman is a terrible mother," Corvina said sharply after the maid left.

"Lucy? I didn't know Lucy had any kids," Kendall said in confusion.

"No, ERICA," Corvina scowled. "That baby, all she does is cry. Erica is not tending to her."

Kendall frowned. "I thought all Erica did was tend to her. I overheard Dimitri say something to Peggy about how all Erica does is walk the floors with Sasha and that she's exhausted from it."

"If she tended to her, if she was a decent mother, that baby would not cry all the time," Corvina said firmly. "Not all babies are like that. Anton – Anton was a GOOD baby. He slept well, ate well, he did not scream like Sasha does."

"Well, it's not like he was YOUR baby – your parents were the ones who had to take care of him. I'm sure it seemed like he was quiet at the time," Kendall said, hating that once again she was defending the very woman who'd given her away, the very woman who'd admitted that she couldn't love her own firstborn unconditionally. She was caught up enough in her own drama that she failed to notice the pained expression on Corvina's face.

"I remember Anton as a baby quite well," Corvina said frostily. "Do you forget that Erica already lost custody of one child?"

"I know," Kendall said in a quiet voice. She was so used to everyone disagreeing with her, everyone jumping to Erica's defense. It felt oddly empowering to have someone else – even if it was just Corvina – give voice to thoughts Kendall herself had had many times. Erica gave her firstborn away, never looked for her again, and now wanted Kendall to just go away and never come back. She lost custody of her second daughter to her ex-husband, and now only saw Bianca on visits. And now she had a third daughter who cried all the time and who never seemed content or peaceful. Maybe Corvina was right – maybe Erica really was a bad mother.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

He could hear the crying as soon as he opened the bedroom door. He closed the bedroom door behind him with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. His hand lingered on the door knob.

No, not again, he told himself. They'd both been so hopeful…

He took his time walking across the bedroom as he debated how to best handle the situation.

Edmund pushed open the bathroom door and was saddened but unsurprised to find Maria sitting on the floor, crying as she clutched a pregnancy test in her hands.

He didn't need to ask if it was negative. Her reaction told him more than he needed to know. He was silent as he sat down beside her and put an arm around her. Her sobs continued as she leaned into his embrace.

God this was demoralizing. When they first talked about having a baby, he'd been nervous about the idea, sure. Who wouldn't be? Having a child was such a huge responsibility, and the very prospect of it was daunting, especially considering his own upbringing at the hands of an abusive stepfather and a biological father who pretended he didn't exist. Still, he was game. He was up for it. He was convinced it was only a matter of time before passionate nights of lovemaking resulted in a positive pregnancy test, followed by months of weird food cravings and then the inevitable wonderful result, wrapped up in pink or blue, dreaming sweet baby dreams in Maria's arms. They had yet to see those two perfect little pink lines on a test.

If someone had told him more than a year ago that they'd be unable to conceive, that they'd spend month after month on a roller coaster of hormones and fertility drugs and emotion, he wouldn't have believed it. He'd had absolutely no concept of just how stressful infertility would be, how it would wear on his marriage, how it would leave him feeling utterly helpless and unable to comfort his wife, and how it would leave Maria feeling like a complete failure as month after month her body neglected to do what came so easily for so many other women.

Edmund stroked Maria's hair and listened to her cry as he blinked away his own tears. It was so damned unfair, it really was.

"I just thought maybe…" Maria said softly as she pulled away from her husband enough to wipe at her tears.

"I thought you were supposed to take the test first thing in the morning," he chided gently. Perhaps if she'd waited until tomorrow… he hated to get their hopes up.

"In theory I could have tested as early as two days ago. I was going to test yesterday morning, but I thought I should wait," she admitted. "I kept looking at the calendar, and when my period didn't come, I thought maybe… I was going to test this morning, but I was afraid. I told myself that if I didn't get my period by tonight, surely I'd waited long enough that if I was pregnant, we'd get a positive result."

Edmund took the test from her hand and examined it. He strained his eyes, hoping to see even the faintest hint of a second pink line, but just like last month and every month before it, there was nothing to see.

"I'm so sorry babe," he murmured. The words rang hollow to him. What was there to say? Nothing he could say to her would make her feel any better.

Maria leaned back against the bathroom cabinets and sighed. "Maybe… maybe we need to talk to the fertility specialist about moving on. The clomid isn't working," she said in a defeated voice.

"They said it could take a few cycles, right?" he asked.

"I don't want to waste any more time, not after all of the months we've been trying, plus the months on clomid," Maria said in frustration as she pushed herself up from the floor.

Edmund stood as well and watched as she splashed cool water on her face and composed herself. He knew that her brief emotional breakdown was over, and she was back in clinical doctor mode. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"So what now?" he asked.

"I need to talk to the doctor's office in the morning, but the next step is injectable fertility drugs – pergonal, metrodin. I'm not sure what they'll want to use."

Edmund winced. Since going on clomid, Maria had been plagued by headaches, hot flashes and wild emotional mood swings. He hated to think how much worse injectable fertility drugs would be. But if that's what it took to give his wife the baby she wanted, he'd go along with it. He'd go along with damn near anything to make Maria happy at this point.

Maria took the test away from him then and tossed it in the trash.

"Next month," she said in a more assured voice. "Next month it's going to happen for us. I can feel it."

He nodded and smiled what he hoped looked like an encouraging smile. He was about to reach for his wife again, about to pull her into his arms and hold her and remind her that he loved her, no matter what, when he heard the unmistakable sound of a baby crying.

Maria's face twisted in pain, and Edmund's heart sank at the sight.

Sasha was crying.

Again.

They'd both been genuinely happy for Dimitri and Erica. Sure, it stung a little that Erica apparently got pregnant without even trying, right after she and Dimitri reconciled. Edmund never would've thought that his own brother's happiness would hurt like it did, but it was hard for Maria in particular to put on a happy face for their sister-in-law's pregnancy when a child of their own remained just out of reach.

Erica and Maria had never been particularly close, Edmund knew, but he couldn't help but feel a little sad as he watched his wife begin to treat her sister-in-law with cool detachment instead of outright friendliness. He knew it was her way of coping, so he didn't push Maria to embrace Erica's pregnancy. He'd apologized privately to Dimitri for the change in Maria. If Erica ever noticed it, Edmund never heard a word about it, thank God. It was one of the few times he was thankful for his sister-in-law's self-centered nature.

At the sound of Sasha's cries, Maria closed her eyes and gritted her teeth in frustration.

"WHY can't Erica for once do something RIGHT and get that baby to go to sleep?" she said angrily.

Edmund's eyes widened in surprised at his wife's sharp words. "Hey now, let's not take Erica's head off!" He held up his hands defensively. "I'm sure she's doing the best she can."

Maria exhaled, and Edmund was relieved to see some tension leave her body.

"Edmund, this house, it's practically a castle it's so big, and yet it feels like there's not anywhere we can go where we don't hear that baby crying. And she cries ALL THE TIME!"

"I know," he admitted. "It's hard to hear. It would be hard to hear even if we weren't dealing with our own fertility issues."

"Erica is already a mother. She's done this before. I don't understand why she's having such a hard time coping with Sasha!"

"Well, like Dimitri said, Sasha doesn't sleep well or eat well, and Erica's exhausted and stressed out, especially with Kendall around and Bianca visiting too," Edmund said apologetically. "Come on Maria, we don't listening to that baby cry, and we're not the parents. If it stresses you out this much, how do you think Erica and Dimitri feel?"

"I can't listen to it. I can't." Maria said in frustration. She flashed her husband a guilty look. "I know, I know. I said they could stay. I encouraged them to stay when Dimitri offered to take Sasha and Erica and leave, but I just can't do this right now. I can't listen to that baby crying or to Dimitri or Erica talk about how tired they are or how stressed out they are when I would give ANYTHING to be in Erica's shoes right now. ANYTHING, Edmund!"

He watched in surprise as she stomped out of the bathroom and grabbed a jacket from the closet.

"I just need some time alone. I'll be back later," she said over her shoulder as she stomped out of the bedroom.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Erica sat stoically at her vanity table, slowing brushing her hair and staring at her reflection in the mirror as Dimitri paced around the bedroom behind her, ranting about Kendall. According to Dimitri, Kendall was "a lying schemer," "a deceptive, unfeeling witch," and "a black widow spider, lying in wait, ready to destroy anyone and anything she could draw into her web."

Erica put her brush down calmly and turned to face her husband.

"Then fire her and kick her scheming little backside to the curb," she said.

"You know I can't do that."

"No, you WON'T do that. There's a big difference Dimitri," she said sharply.

"I am trying to protect my son!" he insisted.

"By what? Giving Kendall Hart a free place to stay, a cushy life in a mansion with horses and a pool and meals prepared for her and servants and no expenses of her own? By giving her a job she's likely not even remotely qualified to do?"

Dimitri sighed and turned away. He hated this conversation. He'd been having it with Erica and Edmund both for over a year now.

"Darling, you've let that woman insinuate herself so deeply into our lives that we'll never be rid of her at this rate!"

"What do you want me to do, Erica? She married MY SON."

"Yes, your son. Your grown son who has a life of his own," she retorted. She sighed at the pained expression on his face and softened her tone.

"Darling, I know you love Anton, and I know how much it pains you that you weren't told about him, that you weren't given any opportunity to be a father to him," she said, "But you can't change the past. No amount of coddling you do now is going to make up for lost time or make Anton any less of a grown man."

"I am NOT coddling him!"

"No, you just bent over backwards and allowed the woman who destroyed our first marriage to live in in your house to keep him close to you. You gave her a job to make him happy."

"No one else in this town would hire her, not for a decent job," he said.

"And with good reason! Everyone in this town saw the hatched job she did on me!" Erica retorted.

"I know Anton is grown," Dimitri responded. He didn't want to gloss over the lies Kendall had told that resulting in his stabbing or the decimation of his marriage. But at the same time, she was married to his son. What else was he supposed to do? It was a damn near impossible situation.

"And?"

"And I know he's grown, and I know it's only a matter of time before he finishes medical school. As Edmund – and you and Maria too – have all pointed out, he may very well want to go somewhere else to do his residency and establish a practice," Dimitri said in a defeated voice. "I just want to be able to spend as much time with him as possible now, when he's here. And if that means putting up with Kendall, I have to at least try, no matter how much I dislike her."

"Dimitri, if you'd just tell Kendall to leave – or let ME tell her to leave – we'd be rid of her! She's never going to be happy living the life of a poor medical student's wife! And she's not going to be happy being a poor, overworked resident's wife either - I know, I was married to a new doctor once too," she pointed out. "She will quickly tire of life with Anton, and she'll leave him. With her gone, he's free to come home, and we're all free of Kendall."

"Please, let me worry about Kendall," he said, silently cursing himself for ranting to Erica about Kendall in the first place. "You just focus on Bianca and Sasha."

"How can I?" Erica replied. "How can I 'just focus on Bianca and Sasha' when I'm afraid Bianca is going to turn around one day and find Kendall standing right there in front of her? You've got to get rid of her, Dimitri. Send her away. Come up with some excuse, some business trip you can send her on."

"To do what?" he shot back. "As you've so aptly pointed out, she's not qualified for anything more than basic clerical work. What am I supposed to do? I can't send her off to visit a company in which we're investing. She knows almost nothing about the financial markets or about business, and it would be a disaster. I can't take a huge financial hit just to get her out of the house."

"And this is exactly why you were a fool to hire her," Erica threw back at him, folding her arms in irritation.

"A fool? You're calling me a fool?" He was indignant now, and they both knew it. Under a different set of circumstances, he probably could have laughed off her half-hearted insult. He could have teasingly asked something like, "If I'm a fool, what does that say about you for marrying me?" Then he could have grabbed her and pulled her to him and kissed her before she could even protest.

Tonight he was too tired and too frustrated for that. He wanted to go to bed early, and make Erica go to bed too for some much-needed sleep, but he had a feeling neither one of them would get any rest until they had it out again over Anton and Kendall.

Bianca Montgomery lay quietly in bed, staring up at the ceiling. The drapes that framed the large picture window were open and the trees outside cast eerie shadows into her bedroom. She clutched her doll a little closer to her. It was dark outside, but her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and she could make out the details of the crystal chandelier that hung above her bed.

This was her bedroom and yet it wasn't. She spent but a few all too brief weeks each year in Pine Valley, so it was hard to think of any room in Pine Valley as really hers. It was harder still to think of this room at Wildwind as hers when she knew her mother's former home, Linden, House, stood furnished and unoccupied across town. Sure, all of her things had been packed up and moved to Wildwind and into this fancy bedroom she now occupied, but it wasn't quite the same.

Bianca listened to the wind rustling through the trees. It was a little bit spooky. Actually, all of Wildwind had an air of spookiness to her. Sometimes – okay, a lot of the time - she pretended she was a princess in a castle in the woods when she was here. That was much better than being frightened by the mausoleum where Dimitri's parents were buried or admitting to anyone that she once got lost in the giant house when she tried to make her way back to her bedroom from the top of the turret.

She clutched her American Girl doll, Samantha to her chest. Samantha was a gift from her mother and Dimitri. Like Bianca, her doll had long dark brown hair and bangs, and her Victorian era clothes and accessories felt like they belonged at Wildwind. She absolutely adored her doll and all of the very realistic items that came with her, but she didn't want to admit that publicly. It seemed babyish to play with dolls, even dolls as exquisite as Samantha. Plus she liked reading the books that came with her. She debated turning on her lamp to reach for the latest book – one about Samantha's birthday – but just her luck, her mother would see the light on and would be unhappy with her for being awake when she was supposed to be asleep.

Her mother was unhappy a lot lately, or at least that was how it seemed to Bianca. She'd been so excited about coming to Pine Valley to meet her new sister and spend time with her mother and Dimitri, but so far, this visit hadn't been quite as much fun as she thought it would be. Her other half-siblings, Molly and Sean, were much closer to her in age, and she didn't really remember what they were like as babies.

Sasha was not exactly what she'd expected. Sasha cried all the time, and she didn't nap very well, and she cried whenever Bianca tried to give her a bottle. Sure, she was a pretty baby, prettier even than Molly's baby dolls back home in Seattle, but she wasn't much fun. On top of that, her Mommy didn't want to do anything fun now that Sasha was here. Her mother wouldn't go swimming with her. She wouldn't go horseback riding with her. She shot down Bianca's request for an overnight shopping trip to New York City. A trip to the Glamorama for a manicure and a brief shopping excursion at the local mall was about as exciting as it got around here lately, and Bianca most definitely blamed Sasha for that. Even local outings were inevitably delayed by feedings and diaper changes and lots of crying.

No, this trip to Pine Valley hadn't been much fun, but at least she'd been reassured, temporarily anyway, that her mother wasn't about to fall madly in love with Sasha and forget all about her. Her mother seemed about as frustrated with Sasha as Bianca felt. That was something at least, she thought.

The wind blew a little bit harder, and she heard a tapping or a scratching noise at her window. Bianca bolted upright in bed and stared out into the dark night.

"Just the wind. Just the tree," she whispered softly to herself. It was stupid to be scared, she told herself. Only whiny little babies were scared, and she was absolutely NOT a baby.

She sat still for a moment, listening for any suspicious noises. Was that a door opening? She thought perhaps it was. Perhaps her mother and Dimitri were still up. She debated getting out of bed to check. During one visit before Sasha was born, she got up during the night and found her mother and Dimitri in the kitchen having milk and chocolate chip cookies in the middle of the night. Mommy said it was a craving, and she couldn't help herself. They let her stay up with them for cookies and milk too, and it was a night Bianca remembered quite fondly. They felt like a real family – her and her mother and Dimitri – all laughing and talking about the baby and about what life would be like when the baby came. She didn't want to leave Wildwind after that visit.

Bianca toyed absent-mindedly with Samantha's hair and wondered if her mother would let her get up for cookies again. That would make her feel a lot better, especially if Dimitri joined them too, and Sasha stayed asleep. Yes, that was it. She wouldn't admit that she was a little bit spooked by the wind and by strange noises. She'd just get up and see if her mother was awake and if she'd like to have another late night milk and cookie raid. That worked. It sure beat admitting that she was scared and a little bit lonely.

Doll in hand, Bianca slid carefully out of the bed. It was a big bed, fit for a princess, Dimitri said, with a little set of stairs beside it to help her climb into it at night, and it was piled high with pink pillows, just like she liked. She crept quietly across the bedroom to the closed door.

She turned the knob carefully and pulled the door open just enough to peek through a small crack into the dimly lit hallway and across it toward Sasha's nursery. Bedroom placement had become a bit of a sore subject with Bianca. Sasha's room was directly across the hall from hers, and it was next to her mother and Dimitri's suite. This prospect excited her initially, all of them close together, but she soon realized during this visit that living across the hall from Sasha and this close to her mother's room meant having a front-row seat to Sasha's repeated night wakings and crying bouts.

Bianca gasped in surprise when she realized that the door to Sasha's nursery was wide open. She'd stood patiently in the hallway earlier in the evening while Erica laid Sasha down to sleep in the fancy crib, waiting for her mother to finish so they could spend time together. Mommy always closed the door to the nursery so it would be quiet in there for Sasha to sleep – not that she ever slept for long.

She clutched Samantha tighter, and that same uneasy feeling she had in the bed a few minutes ago now made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Something was definitely wrong. She thought about calling for her mother, but she didn't want to wake up Sasha and then get in trouble.

She drew in a steadying breath and pulled open the bedroom door. Her bare feet were quiet on the carpet as she crept across the hall to the open nursery door. The lamp beside the rocking chair cast a soft, warm yellow light into the room, making it brighter than her own bedroom.

What she saw made her blood run cold and her eyes widen in horror. An unfamiliar woman was bending over Sasha's crib.

Bianca didn't mean to let out a small but startled cry. Still, the noise was enough to draw the woman's attention away from the crib. Bianca took a step back in fear as the woman turned and faced her.

For the first time in more than a year, Bianca was face to face with the woman who'd brought nothing but trouble to her life and to her mother's: her sister Kendall.

"Bianca, shh…" Kendall whispered urgently.

Bianca opened her mouth, and then she screamed.


	22. Chapter 22

_Author's Note: I appreciate your patience with this story. I really struggled with this chapter, to the point that I had to walk away for a little while and focus on another story, "Gone," but I plan to keep this one going too. This is going to be a long story with a lot of twists and turns, and I hope you'll stay with me until the end. _

_Also... I used a little bit of Hungarian in this chapter. I don't speak/write it, so I used a translation site. On the off chance that any of my readers know the language, please PM me and let me know if the translation is wrong. I'm happy to correct it. Thanks! _

Chapter 22

"The problem is that YOU don't understand what I'm dealing with here, Dimitri!' Erica said angrily. "You have no sympathy at all!"

"I have no sympathy? You're the one who wants me to cast aside my own son because you hate his wife," he shot back. "And 'no sympathy' is patently absurd coming from you. Pot, I'd like you to meet a very dark kettle."

"How dare you!" she exclaimed.

"MOMMMMMMMMYYYYYYY!"

Dimitri and Erica both froze, their argument momentarily interrupted by Bianca's scream. In a flash, they both ran for the door. By the time they followed the sound of Bianca's screams to the hallway, they could hear Sasha crying as well.

"Bianca what is it?" Erica gasped, reaching out for her daughter.

Bianca's scream stopped, and she pointed to the doorway to the nursery.

Dimitri's heart sank when he saw Kendall standing there with a worried but guilty look on her face as she tried unsuccessfully to quiet Bianca.

"Where's Sasha? What did you do to her?" Erica demanded of Kendall.

"She's fine," Kendall said quickly.

"Why is she here Mommy? You need to call the police!" Bianca insisted before Erica could say anything.

"No one is calling the police," Dimitri said quickly, hoping to instill a sense of calm into what he feared was already a rapidly disintegrating situation.

"She broke into our house!" Bianca said, tugging at her mother's arm.

"I didn't break in, you know that Erica," Kendall said.

"What did you do to my baby?" Erica demanded, glaring angrily at Kendall. "Get out of my way!"

"Nothing, I swear!"

"I'll get her," Dimitri said quickly, pushing past Kendall into the nursery.

Sasha was lying in her crib, just as she'd been when Erica put her to bed earlier that evening. He scooped the small baby up gently in his arms, kissed the top of her head and whispered softly to her in Hungarian, "Semmi baj a drága lány. Apa itt van."

There was no way his little countess would be able to go back to sleep anytime soon, not with all of the shouting. He had a feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach. This looked to be about as bad as it could possibly get where Kendall was concerned.

"I was walking by, I was taking the long way down to the kitchen to get a snack, and I heard her crying when I walked by. I went in to check on her – that's all," Kendall insisted.

"She's LYING, Mommy!" Bianca insisted. "She's a big, fat, ugly LIAR! Sasha wasn't crying!"

"I am not a liar!" Kendall insisted. "I wasn't doing anything wrong. Bianca, I'm sure you were just asleep and thought you heard something."

"I was NOT asleep! I was awake, and I know what I saw and what I heard! Sasha was asleep, and Kendall was leaning over her crib! Make her go away, Mommy! Why is she here?" Bianca said urgently.

"You mean our mother did tell you?" Kendall asked Bianca in a voice laced with faux surprise.

"Kendall, enough!" Dimitri said quickly.

"I LIVE here," Kendall spit out at her younger sister.

"Get out," Erica said in a deadly serious voice. Dimitri noticed the way her body tensed as she positioned herself between Bianca and Kendall, holding an arm out protectively in front of Bianca. He also noticed the subtle trembling of her hand. He'd only ever seen her this subtly angry right before she exploded. At the moment, he neither envied Kendall nor did he particularly pity her.

"No you don't! That's a lie! Mommy and Dimitri would NEVER let you live at Wildwind!" Bianca accused.

"Well, you're wrong, Bianca, I do live here," she held up her left hand, displaying the plain gold band on her finger. "Anton and I are married."

"Anton would never marry YOU. He's not THAT much of a loser!" Bianca shot back.

"Kendall, I want you to leave. Now," Dimitri said firmly, moving past Kendall to stand beside Erica.

Erica reached over and took Sasha from him, cradling the baby protectively in her arms as she glared at Kendall.

"How dare you? After everything this man has done for you, after he put a roof over your lying, scheming head, you – what? – creep into my baby's nursery in the middle of the night? What is wrong with you?" Erica demanded. "You would hurt an innocent baby?"

"I would NEVER do anything to hurt her, Erica! You have to believe me! She's my SISTER!" Kendall said imploringly.

"NO, she is NOT," Erica retorted.

"Mommy, how could you let her live here? I don't want her here!" Bianca complained. "Make her go away!"

"Bianca this is not the time," Dimitri said quietly. If he could get Kendall to leave, then perhaps they could deal with one problem at a time.

Erica turned on him in fury. "Don't you DARE shush my daughter! She has EVERY right to be terrified of Kendall, after what she did!"

Dimitri saw the furious and hurt expression on Erica's face, and he didn't have to ask for an explanation. He knew right away that she was referring to the awful day during her trial in which Kendall took Bianca from school and brought her to Pine Valley without Travis' knowledge or consent. That was the day Erica was forced to relive her own rape on the witness stand, the day Kendall left Bianca alone in a cheap motel room, defenseless when Richard Fields showed up. He felt the bile rise up in his throat when he recalled going there to confront Fields, to threaten him, hell, perhaps to even beat him to death for what he'd done to Erica. He'd never in a million years expected to find Bianca there, young, innocent Bianca with her sweater askew and her dress torn, shaking in fear the same way Erica did when she awoke from the nightmares that had plagued her since she'd been forced to admit the truth about her rape.

He knew immediately he'd made an enormous blunder by trying to quiet Bianca, and Erica wasn't going to let him get away with that.

From the look of remorse and disgust on Kendall's face, she seemed to be remembering that same day as well.

"I'm not scared of Kendall! I'm not scared of anyone!" Bianca piped up from behind her mother.

"Shh," Erica said as she bounced Sasha lightly in her arms, trying to stop the baby's cries. Dimitri wasn't sure if she was speaking to Bianca or to Sasha.

"Erica, I would never hurt Bianca or Sasha. You know that!" Kendall said.

Erica placed a protective hand over the baby's head. "I told you to stay away from her. I told you to get away from my baby, and I find you HERE, in her nursery? What would have happened if Bianca hadn't found you?"

"NOTHING would have happened, I swear," Kendall said quickly.

"Shhh.. darling," Erica murmured to Sasha.

"What's wrong? We heard screaming!"

Everyone turned as Edmund and Maria rounded the corner, both looking worried.

Edmund caught sight of Kendall standing in front of Sasha's nursery and took note of the furious expression on Erica's face and the look of despair on Dimitri's and figured this was about as bad as it could get.

"Nothing, it's nothing. Edmund and Maria, I'm sorry if you were disturbed," Dimitri said quickly.

"No it's not NOTHING!" Erica seethed.

"I don't WANT Kendall here! I want her to leave!" Bianca exclaimed, tugging impatiently at Erica's robe.

"Kendall, what the hell are you doing here?" Edmund asked in irritation.

"It's all just a big misunderstanding!" Kendall stammered. "I…I couldn't sleep, and I wanted a snack, so I decided to take a long walk around the house and go down to the kitchen. When I walked past the nursery, I heard Sasha crying, and I didn't see anyone else, so I went into the room to check on her. That's IT. I was just standing there when Bianca freaked out and started screaming like a wild banshee!"

"I WAS NOT SCREAMING LIKE A BANSHEE!" Bianca yelled back. She tugged at Erica's robe again. "Mommy, Kendall is a LIAR! Sasha wasn't crying!"

"How would you know? You're supposed to be asleep," Kendall pointed out to her younger sister.

Dimitri sighed heavily and bent to be more on eye level with his younger stepdaughter. "Bianca, honey, is it possible that you were asleep and Sasha woke you up crying? And you went to the door and saw Kendall?" he asked.

"Don't you dare try to accuse my daughter of, of making this all up!" Erica snapped at her husband.

"No one is accusing, Erica," Edmund said quickly.

"I wasn't asleep, Dimitri. Really, I wasn't," Bianca said earnestly.

She looked up imploringly at her mother.

"I couldn't sleep, Mommy. And I thought that maybe you were still awake too, so I got up to come see you. I never, ever get to see you. When I opened the door, Kendall was there, in Sasha's room," Bianca insisted.

"Why would you let her live her, Dimitri? Why? Who cares if she's married to Anton?" Bianca asked in a pleading voice, gazing at her stepfather as she held onto her mother's robe.

Dimitri glance at Edmund and then at Erica before looking at Bianca again.

"The important thing is that you're okay, and Sasha is okay. You know, you terrified us with that scream," Dimitri said, forcing a smile at his stepdaughter as he side-stepped the questions about Kendall.

"Well, it sounds like it was all a big misunderstanding," Edmund offered in a light voice, trying to ignore the way Maria stood tensely at his side, eyeing a still crying Sasha.

Erica glared at him in response. "It was NOT a misunderstanding! Kendall was IN my daughter's nursery! Hovering over her crib!" she cried indignantly.

"I swear, I didn't do anything!" Kendall repeated, this time looking to Edmund and Maria as if they might rescue her.

It was Maria who came to the rescue, although perhaps not in the way Kendall would have liked.

"Look, it's late, and I have surgery in the morning. Can't we settle this all tomorrow?" Maria said in exasperation.

Edmund glanced at his brother and sister-in-law. "I think that's an excellent idea," he said. "Maria, you get some rest. No one wants you poking around in someone's brain when you're overtired. Dimitri, you and Erica can get Sasha and Bianca back to bed, and I will _personally_ see to it that Kendall is escorted back to her husband and her room."

Kendall leaned back slightly as if she was afraid of the idea of leaving with Edmund. Given the menacing look on Edmund's face, Dimitri didn't exactly blame her, but he was too concerned about Erica's reaction to everything to even care what Kendall thought.

Maria turned on her heel and walked off, and Edmund followed quickly behind, taking Kendall by the upper arm and steering her away before she could even protest.

Dimitri drew in a deep breath and steeled himself for the inevitable onslaught from his wife.


End file.
